Monteverdi - Testamento: Vespro della Madonna (1643)
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Label: Chateau de Versailles Spectacles
Cat No: CVS145
Format: CD
Number of Discs: 2
Genre: Vocal/Choral
Release Date: 15th November 2024
Contents
Works
Madrigals, Book 5: SV94-106 » Stabat Virgo Maria (contrafactum of Era l'anima mia, SV96)
Messa et salmi, SV190-204 » Laetatatus sum I, SV198
» Lauda Jerusalem a 5, SV203
» Nisi Dominus a 6, SV201
Selva morale e spirituale » Dixit Dominus II
» Laudate pueri (primo)
» Magnificat (primo)
» Pianto della Madonna 'Iam moriar, mi fili' (sopra il Lamento dell'Arianna)
» Salve Regina II
Vespro della beata Vergine » Ave maris stella
Artists
Perrine Devillers (soprano)Eva Zaicik (mezzo-soprano)
Paco Garcia (tenor)
Cyril Auvity (tenor)
Romain Bockler (baritone)
Viktor Shapovalov (baritone)
Le Poeme Harmonique
Conductor
Vincent DumestreWorks
Madrigals, Book 5: SV94-106 » Stabat Virgo Maria (contrafactum of Era l'anima mia, SV96)
Messa et salmi, SV190-204 » Laetatatus sum I, SV198
» Lauda Jerusalem a 5, SV203
» Nisi Dominus a 6, SV201
Selva morale e spirituale » Dixit Dominus II
» Laudate pueri (primo)
» Magnificat (primo)
» Pianto della Madonna 'Iam moriar, mi fili' (sopra il Lamento dell'Arianna)
» Salve Regina II
Vespro della beata Vergine » Ave maris stella
Artists
Perrine Devillers (soprano)Eva Zaicik (mezzo-soprano)
Paco Garcia (tenor)
Cyril Auvity (tenor)
Romain Bockler (baritone)
Viktor Shapovalov (baritone)
Le Poeme Harmonique
Conductor
Vincent DumestreAbout
At his arrival in Venice in 1613, Monteverdi, ever the tireless worker, finally found a challenge that suited him: he would compose every day, both sacred and secular music, for the glory of God or his patrons. In the twilight of his life, he gathered his works into a corpus, intended to inspire musicians during the celebration of religious services. This recording is a musical testament to his carefully preserved life’s work. Vincent Dumestre and Le Poème Harmonique pay tribute to the brilliant composer who set the tone for all 17th-century sacred music.
Sound/Video
Paused
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1Vespro della Beata Vergine, SV206: 1. Responsorium. Deus in adjutorium meum intende
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2Psalmus: Dixit Dominus secondo, SV 264: 1. Dixit Dominus
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3Psalmus: Dixit Dominus secondo, SV 264: 2. Tecum principio
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4Psalmus: Dixit Dominus secondo, SV 264: 3. De torrente
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5Motectus: Ego flos campi, SV 301
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6Psalmus: Laudate pueri primo, SV 270: 1. Laudate pueri Dominum
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7Psalmus: Laudate pueri primo, SV 270: 2. Suscitans
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8Psalmus: Laudate pueri primo, SV 270: 3. Gloria
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9Motectus: Stabat Virgo Maria, SV 96
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10Psalmus: Laetatus sum primo, SV 198
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11Motectus: Salve Regina, SV 284
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12Psalmus: Nisi Dominus secondo, SV 201: 1. Nisi Dominus
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13Psalmus: Nisi Dominus secondo, SV 201: 2. Vanum est vobis
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14Psalmus: Nisi Dominus secondo, SV 201: 3. Beatus vir
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15Motectus: Pianto della Madonna, SV 288
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16Psalmus: Lauda Jerusalem, SV 203
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17Hymnus: Ave Maris Stella
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18Magnificat primo, SV 281: 1. Magnificat
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19Magnificat primo, SV 281: 2. Quia respexit
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20Magnificat primo, SV 281: 3. Et misericordia
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21Magnificat primo, SV 281: 4. Fecit potentia
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22Magnificat primo, SV 281: 5. Suscepit Israel
Europadisc Review
In an introductory note to the new Monteverdi recording with his ensemble Le Poème Harmonique, Vincent Dumestre opens with a rhetorical question: ‘What composer in our Western culture can claim to have been more perfectly in the service of religious art than Monteverdi?’ It’s a provocative gambit, but one that deserves serious thought. The composer’s first essays in sacred music date from his teenage years, while his continued output of religious works reached a peak during his time as maestro di cappella at St Mark’s, Venice (1613–1643). By the time of publication of the collection entitled Selva morale e spirituale in 1640, Monteverdi was well into his 70s, and the posthumous publication in 1650 of the Messa a quattro voci e Salmi completes a picture of a life devoted – albeit not exclusively – to music for the church.
For most listeners, Monteverdi’s name is synonymous with two works: the groundbreaking opera L’Orfeo (1607) and the Vespro della Beata Vergine of 1610. The latter in particular has taken on an iconic, well-nigh monumental status, yet the range of recordings now before the public should alert us to the fact that the ‘Monteverdi Vespers’ are anything but set in stone. Composed as a sample of his art in the hopes of a Vatican appointment from Paul V, they are designed (like the ‘Brandenburg’ Concertos and Mass in B minor of Bach) to give a prospective patron an idea of the range of their creator’s capabilities. In fact, over the course of his long career – and particularly in his Venetian years – Monteverdi provided music for many Vespers services each year, containing music that reflected his artistic development in the decades after the 1610 Vespers.
Both the Selva morale et spirituale and the 1650 posthumous collection are testamentary repositories for musical items which can be drawn on to construct possible services, and they provide the main sources for Dumestre’s stunning new album ‘Testamento: Vespro della Madonna 1643’. As the earlier 1610 work already illustrates, the cult of the Virgin Mary provided a rich source of inspiration for Vespers settings, with a succession of Psalms and antiphons (or substitute motets) culminating in the Magnificat (the ‘Song of Mary’ from St Luke’s Gospel).
The individual items chosen by Dumestre and his musicians present a fabulous array of music, kaleidoscopic in its variety and dazzling in effect. Whether judged as separate movements or as a whole, none of this music yields in quality to the famous 1610 publication. Thanks partly to the blooming acoustic of Versailles’ Chapel Royal, but also to the sumptuous tapestry of sound produced by the 24-strong choir and the colourful band of instrumentalists (with prominent cornetts, sackbuts and a pair of wonderfully twangy, deep theorbos), the big Psalm settings make a glorious impression. But their quieter passages – such as the quickfire vocal solos and triple harp that launch the Dixit Dominus – are just as vivid, and both the six-strong solo team and their choral colleagues demonstrate complete mastery of the Monteverdian idiom. Texts are projected with urgency, and the vocal flourishes and rapid repetitions of the stile concitato are expertly realised.
The sheer range of texture and expression created by Monteverdi in the Nisi Dominus, SV201, will sweep you off your feet, while the catchy ground that underpins the Laetatus sum primo, SV198 – giving way to vast homophonic blocks of the ‘Gloria’ before resuming at the words ‘semper et in saecula saeculorum’ – is toe-tappingly catchy. The urge to dance in the aisles must have been overwhelming! Yet for all the musical splendour, the real hallmark of this lavish compilation is the tenderness and inwardness of the more reflective items. The solo motet Ego flos campi is delivered with a mixture of melting delicacy and focussed passion by soprano Perrine Devillers and the continuo team. The five-voice Stabat Virgo Maria (a retexted madrigal from Monteverdi’s Fifth Book of 1605) works primarily in imposing chordal style but really tugs at the heartstrings, and begins here with funereal brass.
At the album’s focal point is another solo item, the great Pianto della Madonna, itself based on the Lamento d’Arianna from Monteverdi’s otherwise lost opera L’Arianna (1608). It’s sung with a searing intensity and rich yet clear tone by mezzo-soprano Eva Zaïcik, another example of how porous the boundaries between secular and sacred were in Monteverdi’s time. The service culminates in the Magnificat primo from the Selva morale collection. Like the opening Dixit Dominus, it is thrillingly scored for a double choir and instruments, and it constitutes a masterclass in the stile moderno which Monteverdi did so much to champion. It closes one of the most compelling Monteverdi albums we’ve heard in a long while, and serves as a timely reminder of the composer’s lifelong commitment to the world of sacred music.
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