Apollo's Fire
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Thursday, November 13, 2014, 8pm First Congregational Church Apollo’s Fire The Cleveland Baroque Orchestra Jeannette Sorrell, conductor Molly Quinn & Nell Snaidas, sopranos Karim Sulayman & Oliver Mercer, tenors Kristen Dubenion-Smith, alto Jesse Blumberg, baritone Jonathan Woody, bass Apollo’s Singers PROGRAM Claudio Monteverdi (1567–1643) Vespers of 1610 Versicle & Response: Deus in adjutorium Antiphon: Læva ejus sub capite meo Psalm 109: Dixit Dom inus Motet: Nigra sum Oliver Mercer, tenor Antiphon: Nigra sum sed formosa Psalm 112: Laudate pueri Motet: Pulchra es Molly Quinn & Nell Snaidas, sopranos Antiphon: Pulchra es et decora Psalm 121: Læt atus sum Motet: Duo Seraphim Karim Sulayman, Oliver Mercer & Owen McIntosh, tenors CAL PERFORMANCES 19 PROGRAM Antiphon: Iam hiems transit Psalm 126 : Nisi Dominus INTERMISSION Motet: Audi Cœlum Karim Sulayman & Oliver Mercer (echo), tenors Antiphon: Virgo prudentissima Psalm 147 : Lauda, Jerusalem Sonata sopra Santa Maria Madeline Healey, soprano Hymn: Ave maris stella Kristen Dubenion-Smith, alto & Jesse Blumberg, baritone Magnificat Antiphon: Sancta Maria succure miseris Magnificat anima mea Et exultavit Quia respexit humilitatem Quia fecit mihi magna Et misericordia Fecit potentiam Deposuit potentes Esurientes Suscepit Israel Sicut locutus est Gloria Patri Sicut erat in principio The CD recording of the Monteverdi Vespers by Apollo’s Fire, as well as other Apollo’s Fire CDs, will be on sale in the lobby during intermission and after the concert. This tour of Apollo’s Fire is made possible by support from the National Endowment for the Arts. Cal Performances’ 8679–867: season is sponsored by Wells Fargo. PLAYBILL ORCHESTRA & CHORuS APOLLO’S FIRE APOLLO’S SInGERS Jeannette Sorrell, conductor CAnTuS STRInG BAnd Molly Quinn, soloist Julie Andrijeski, concertmaster Margaret Carpenter Johanna Novom, violin Madeline Healey Adriane Post, viola Anna Lenti Kyle Miller, viola René Schiffer, cello piccolo SExTuS Rebecca Landell, cello Nell Snaidas, soloist Sue Yelanjian, contrabass Elena Mullins Sian Ricketts wInd BAnd Kathie Stewart, recorder ALTuS Bruce Dickey, cornetto Kristen Dubenion-Smith, soloist Kiri Tollaksen, cornetto Robin Bier Greg Ingles, alto sackbut Timothy Parsons Peter Christensen, tenor sackbut Nadia Tarnawsky Peter Collins, bass sackbut TEnOR COnTInuO Oliver Mercer, soloist John Lenti, theorbo Owen McIntosh (Tenor III in Duo Seraphim ) William Simms, theorbo Jeffrey Rich Peter Bennett, organ quInTuS Karim Sulayman, soloist Jeff Barnett BASSuS I Jesse Blumberg, soloist Jason Steigerwalt BASSuS II Jonathan Woody, soloist Michael Peters CAL PERFORMANCES PROGRAM nOTES THE MySTERIES OF MOnTEVERdI repeated chant—around which he weaves the most elaborate and avant-garde counterpoint E wILL PERHAPS nEVER understand why imaginable. The relationship between the Wgreat artists often create their most fixed, archaic, medieval psalm tone and the sublime works during periods of personal flamboyant and imaginative Baroque despondency and depression. From Monteverdi counterpoint that dances around it produces to Mozart, from Dostoevsky to Van Gogh, the an extraordinary level of tension and beauty— world has been graced with beauty that comes indeed, it seems to evoke the struggle between out of the suffering of artists. ancient mysticism and modern enlightenment. The winter of 1607–1608 was such a period Three years after publishing the Vespers , for Monteverdi. Exhausted and despondent Monteverdi finally escaped from his unhappy over the recent death of his wife, he was also employment in Mantua in 1613 and be came overworked and underpaid as an employee of music director at St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice. the Duke of Mantua. Thus, his father wrote to Many conductors have assumed that the Duke to request an honorable dismissal Monteverdi conceived the Vespers for the vast for his grief-stricken son, whose health was and monumental Basilica—even though he suffering as well as his spirits. had already published the piece three years The plea was ignored, and Monteverdi was before auditioning there—and that he ordered to return to work. Important things composed the piece to impress the staff at St. were afoot at the Mantuan palace, and music was Mark’s. This theory then leads to an needed: the Duke’s son, Prince Francesco, was to interpretation using large choral forces such be married to Margherita of Savoy. Though we as one would need in order to make a festive do not know for certain, it is probable that impression in the sprawling Basilica. The fact Monteverdi was ordered to compose his is, though, that Monteverdi could hardly have extraordinary Vespers for the wedding had his eye on the St. Mark’s job when he celebrations, which commenced in Mantua in published the Vespers in 1610, as the May 1608 and e clipsed all other events for preceding St. Mark’s music director was still several years. The eminent Monteverdi scholar alive and healthy, and no one could have Iain Fenlon has argued convincingly that the foreseen his unexpected death two years later, Vespers were most likely composed for resulting in a job opening. performance in Mantua in 1608, n ot for Venice By contrast, there is much evidence to suggest in 1610 where the work was published. that the Vespers were composed and conceived Monteverdi’s Vespers are an extraordinary for Mantua. It is apparent even from a quick and revolutionary setting of the five psalms, glance at the score that the Vespers were written hymn, and Magnificat, which make up a for the same vocal and instrumental ensemble Roman Catholic Vespers service. In addition as Monteverdi’s opera L’Orfeo— that is, the small to these standard movements, Monteverdi virtuoso ensemble who performed in Mantua in included four motets (sometimes called 1607 . Both works call for two sopranos, two “concertos”) for one, two, three, and six voices, tenors (one with major solo demands), two respectively, based primarily on love poetry basses, and a small part for alto. The ranges of from the Song of Solomon . There is also an these singers are nearly identical in the two instrumental sonata movement over which is works, including the unusually low tessitura of woven the chant “Sancta Maria ora pro nobis.” the lead tenor. The instrumentation is the same. What makes Monteverdi’s setting of the Finally, the opening Toccata from L’Orfeo Psalms and the Magnificat so remarkable is reappears as the opening Respond in the Vespers ; that he uses the traditional psalm tones that both are based on material that may well have would normally be chanted in a Vespers been the fanfare for the Duke of Mantua. service, but turns them into a kind of cantus On May 25, 1608, it is reported that a firmus —that is a kind of slow-moving, “solemn Vespers” service was celebrated at the PLAYBILL PROGRAM nOTES church of St. Andrea in Mantua, as part of the approach to the Vespers, using singers one on wedding festivities mentioned above. This was a part to create a kind of madrigal ensemble. a major event, in which Prince Francesco was Other conductors take a n 18th century (or installed as the first member of a new order of later!) approach, evoking the image of St. knights. The term “solemn” Vespers means Mark’s and using a large Handel-sized chorus polyphonic (rather than merely chanted); so, of 25 to 35 and soloists with operatic voices. as Iain Fenlon has suggested, it is highly The fact is that Monteverdi was neither a probable that the music performed at this Renaissance composer nor an 18th-century service was Monteverdi’s Vespers . Of course, High Baroque composer. H e was a Monteverdi may have eventually performed revolutionary, living at the end of the his Vespers at St. Mark’s when he took up Renaissance and pushing the limits to forge employment there, and he may well have used the new style, which we call Baroque (just as the work as his audition piece for the post. But Beethoven forged the Romantic style out of it is clear that he did not originally conceive the Classical period two centuries later). He the piece for that space. used the finest professional singers and Most conductors who oppose the large- instrumentalists in the region and gave them scale “St. Mark’s” approach to this piece have daringly avant-garde music to perform— assumed that Monteverdi conceived the music that uses the tools of the Renaissance Vespers for the small ducal chapel at Mantua, and stretches them to convey the flamboyant, which could have only accommodated a one- emotional imagery of the early Baroque. This on-a-part performance (ten singers). However, is music full of sudden contrasts, freedom of there is no record of any festive event taking expression, and spontaneous flights of place in that chapel during 1608–1610 for imagination. I do not think it is ideally suited which music as flamboyant as Monteverdi’s to a massive Handelian chorus, nor can the Vespers would have been appro priate. On the necessary contrasts be achieved by a one-on- contrary, Monteverdi’s work would have been a-part madrigal ensemble. extremely appropriate for the wedding We take the cue for our performance from festivities at St. Andrea church; the sensuous the setting of St. Andrea church in Mantua on love poetry contained in Monteverdi’s text, that spring day in 1608: the grand opening of drawn from the Song of Solomon , is ideal for a festivities for an extraordinary royal wedding. wedding celebration but would certainly seem The excitement of the cantor is palpable as he out of place at any other Vespers service. intones the chant that sets the drama in All of this impacts one’s interpretation motion: Deus in adjutorium meum intende . because there are so many questions left open “God, make speed to save me”—the ordinary by the score.