Venetian Vespers
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Anonymous, Biagio Marini, Claudio Monteverdi, Giovanni Battista Fasolo, Adriano Banchieri, Alessandro Grandi, Giovanni Gabrieli, (Pietro) Francesco Cavalli, Giacomo Finetti, Giovanni Antonio Rigatti
Label: Archiv Produktion
Magazine Review Date: 4/1993
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 95
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: 437 552-2AH2
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Gregorian Chant for the Festival of the Virgin Mar |
Anonymous, Composer
Anonymous, Composer |
Praeambulum |
Anonymous, Composer
Anonymous, Composer Timothy Roberts, Organ |
(L') organo Suonarino, Movement: Suonata prima |
Adriano Banchieri, Composer
Adriano Banchieri, Composer Timothy Roberts, Organ |
(L') organo Suonarino, Movement: Dialogo secondo |
Adriano Banchieri, Composer
Adriano Banchieri, Composer Timothy Roberts, Organ |
Lauda Jerusalem |
(Pietro) Francesco Cavalli, Composer
(Pietro) Francesco Cavalli, Composer Gabrieli Consort Gabrieli Players Paul McCreesh, Conductor |
Intonazione |
Giovanni Battista Fasolo, Composer
Giovanni Battista Fasolo, Composer Timothy Roberts, Organ |
O Maria, quae rapis corda hominum |
Giacomo Finetti, Composer
Gabrieli Consort Gabrieli Players Giacomo Finetti, Composer Paul McCreesh, Conductor |
Intonationi |
Giovanni Gabrieli, Composer
Giovanni Gabrieli, Composer |
(18) Motets, Movement: O intemerata |
Alessandro Grandi, Composer
Alessandro Grandi, Composer Gabrieli Consort Gabrieli Players Paul McCreesh, Conductor |
O quam tu pulchra es |
Alessandro Grandi, Composer
Alessandro Grandi, Composer Gabrieli Consort Gabrieli Players Paul McCreesh, Conductor |
Eco a tre violini |
Biagio Marini, Composer
Biagio Marini, Composer Gabrieli Players Paul McCreesh, Conductor |
Selva morale e spirituale, Movement: Deus tuorum militum (3vv, 2 vns) |
Claudio Monteverdi, Composer
Claudio Monteverdi, Composer Gabrieli Consort Gabrieli Players Paul McCreesh, Conductor |
Selva morale e spirituale, Movement: Laudate Dominum in sanctis eius (1v) |
Claudio Monteverdi, Composer
Claudio Monteverdi, Composer Gabrieli Consort Gabrieli Players Paul McCreesh, Conductor |
Selva morale e spirituale, Movement: Laudate pueri (5vv) |
Claudio Monteverdi, Composer
Claudio Monteverdi, Composer Gabrieli Consort Gabrieli Players Paul McCreesh, Conductor |
Messa et salmi, concertati, e parte da capella, Movement: Laetatus sum, sum (6vv, 2 vns, bn, 2 trbns) |
Claudio Monteverdi, Composer
Claudio Monteverdi, Composer Gabrieli Consort Gabrieli Players Paul McCreesh, Conductor |
Messa e salmi parte concertati, Movement: Dixit Dominus (double choir) |
Giovanni Antonio Rigatti, Composer
Gabrieli Consort Gabrieli Players Giovanni Antonio Rigatti, Composer Paul McCreesh, Conductor |
Messa e salmi parte concertati, Movement: Magnificat (8vv) |
Giovanni Antonio Rigatti, Composer
Gabrieli Consort Gabrieli Players Giovanni Antonio Rigatti, Composer Paul McCreesh, Conductor |
Messa e salmi parte concertati, Movement: Nisi Dominus (3vv) |
Giovanni Antonio Rigatti, Composer
Gabrieli Consort Gabrieli Players Giovanni Antonio Rigatti, Composer Paul McCreesh, Conductor |
Messa e salmi ariosi |
Giovanni Antonio Rigatti, Composer
Gabrieli Consort Gabrieli Players Giovanni Antonio Rigatti, Composer Paul McCreesh, Conductor |
Author: Iain Fenlon
Admirers of that earlier record will certainly not be disappointed by this even more ambitious undertaking. Characteristic of both is a fine grasp of the very particular spatial qualities of St Mark's Basilica, the most important church in Venice which, as both state monument and private chapel of the Doge, had its own liturgy, chants (specially transcribed for the present recording) and ceremonies. This is not merely a question of recording in a suitably resonant acoustic (and Brinknash Priory, used on this occasion, is suitably warm in this respect), but more to do with McCreesh's real understanding of the placing and choreography of the participants in the musical aspects of the liturgy. It is now known, for example, that the antiphonal music that is such a feature of the St Mark's repertoire was not performed from the two organ lofts to the east and west of the high altar as used to be thought, but in fact from one or more of a number of possible locations elsewhere in the building. A good part of the effectiveness of McCreesh's Vespers is to do with its sense of drama, achieved through a variety of spatial effects that allow the full range of musical styles to speak clearly and effectively, from solo movements and duets to the magisterial sonority of traditional Venetian polyphony. Some praise and admiration for the sensitivity of the result must also go to the engineers.
This approach is inevitably linked to the crucial question of performing forces. Here too McCreesh has been quite rigorous with the historical evidence in rejecting the larger ensembles still preferred by some interpreters (above all of Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610) in favour of the more intimate groupings that we can be sure Monteverdi knew. At the same time he has retained the essential contrast between solo and tutti sections which is such a feature of the style and which is quite explicitly invoked in Rigatti's music. Among the performers there is a feeling of common enterprise that is hard to describe, but which sets this record apart from so many others where the overall impression is of a sequence of unrelated pieces given in a disjointed series of separate performances. And, above all, there is some glorious singing and playing, so much so that it seems invidious to single out individual performers. Nevertheless, Charles Daniel's reading of Grandi's O intemerata is cleanly-focused and powerfully effective, the soprano soloists (who are often paired) are well-matched in their boyish purity of tone (while Susan Hemington Jones blossoms into an altogether more rhetorical mode in Grandi's O quam tu pulchra es), and the two falsettists, David Hurley and Timothy Wilson, sing with subtlety and delicacy without sacrificing intensity. There is some carefully thought-out and gracefully-shaped instrumental playing, and all the performers apply embellishments and passaggi with great naturalness and conviction. In short, this is an heroic achievement of the highest possible order.'
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