CORO CORO Claudio Monteverdi Claudio Monteverdi Claudio Monteverdi Selva morale e spirituale Vol. I Selva morale e spirituale Vol. II VESPERS “These are some of “There is a sense of deep the most spirited familiarity with the music of 1610 and individual in this recording, a feeling of performances of this easiness with Monteverdi’s repertory available.” harmonic and, especially, bbc music rhythmic vocabulary that magazine lends a tripping lightness to the performances...” cor16087 cor16101 international record review Claudio Monteverdi Selva morale e spirituale Vol. III Palestrina Volume 5 “As we might expect, “The energy The Sixteen The Sixteen bring to their Palestrina performances are is admirable.” lively and nicely tuned... gramophone the instrumental playing is sensitive and supportive.” bbc music magazine cor16109 cor16124 To find out more about The Sixteen, concert tours, and to buy CDs visit The Sixteen HARRY CHRISTOPHERS www.thesixteen.com cor16126 onteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 is quite simply one of the with. The difference is sufficient to make you wince and is called a ‘comma’. The comma M greatest works of sacred music ever written and without needs to be hidden amongst keys that this music almost never visits, so you are left to doubt the most varied and inspired before Handel and Bach enjoy pure intervals whilst the ‘rogues’ get lost in the surrounding woodwork. Or in began composing their oratorios and passions. Where it was simpler terms, by tuning in this 17th-century meantone temperament we are therefore written, why it was written and who it was written for are actually encouraging a much enhanced resonance in both choir and orchestra, with all major immaterial – suffice it to say it was quite simply his calling card chords performed with pure thirds. for the big job, Choirmaster at the resplendent Basilica of St Photograph: Marco Borggreve Marco Photograph: There has been much scholarly debate about the pitch of Lauda Ierusalem and the Mark in Venice. Its variety alone makes it unique – thrilling Magnificat. These are notated in the part books in a combination of “high” (chiavetti) psalm settings with virtuosic writing for both multi-part choir clefs which dictates a downward transposition of a fourth. For this recording I decided and instrumentalists to exotic and sensual settings of texts from to include both versions, one at high pitch and one at low, so that you the listener can the Song of Songs for solo voices. Every movement is full of luscious harmonies, drama determine your own preference. and an evocative musical language which is so beautifully constructed for all concerned. This recording was the culmination of weeks immersed in the joy that Monteverdi’s music Monteverdi’s music is virtuosic; he stretches every singer’s versatility to the limit, yet his brings us. Concert performances, a documentary for BBC2 on the Vespers with our great demands have an exhilarating effect. His dictum is simple: recitar cantando (speak through friend, the actor Simon Russell Beale, culminating in the recording sessions. I am so singing) and this allows us the most amazing licence. As a result, time relationships do not fortunate to have within The Sixteen’s ranks soloists, both vocal and instrumental, who become mechanical. They are intuitively felt, thus giving us the freedom to be expressive are alert to these wonderful texts, but above all bring this glorious music to life. and interpret the words, just as any great actor recites Shakespeare. A set of words, often repeated many times, can have different inflections, a different gesture each time. But it isn’t just the singers who are stretched; his writing for the solo strings, cornets and sackbuts is both ceremonial and celestial, full of rhythmic vitality and, in true baroque fashion, the continuo section (in our case of organ, harp and chittarone) can luxuriate in Monteverdi’s harmonic language: the variety of textures and sonorities they achieve are quite extraordinary. This recording was made possible by the generous support of the following: Charles Bridge Mark Loveday For those of you who are interested in pitch and temperament, we used pitch 440’ with Sir Thomas Hughes-Hallett Garfield Weston Foundation a temperament of 5th comma meantone. This means when you tune a circle of thirds The Sixteen Ambassadors absolutely pure and beatless, the note you end with is not the same as the note you started 2 3 Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643) CD CD 2 2 Total playing time 39.51 Magnificat (high) Magnificat (low) 1 Magnificat 0.42 bp Magnificat 0.39 VESPERS of 1610 2 Et exultavit 1.15 bq Et exultavit 1.14 Total playing time 66.15 tenor Mark Dobell tenor Mark Dobell CD 1 Jeremy Budd Jeremy Budd 1 Deus in adiutorium 2.04 6 Laetatus sum 6.32 3 Quia respexit 1.13 br Quia respexit 1.15 meum intende 7 tenor Mark Dobell Duo Seraphim 5.48 4 Quia fecit mihi magna 1.06 bs Quia fecit mihi magna 1.06 tenor Mark Dobell bass Ben Davies bass Ben Davies 2 Dixit Dominus 7.08 Jeremy Budd Eamonn Dougan Eamonn Dougan soprano Grace Davidson Ben Davies Charlotte Mobbs 5 Et misericordia 1.54 bt Et misericordia 1.49 8 Nisi Dominus 4.48 tenor Mark Dobell 6 Fecit potentiam 1.00 bu Fecit potentiam 0.58 Jeremy Budd 9 Audi coelum 7.55 7 Deposuit potentes 2.27 cl Deposuit potentes 2.24 3 Nigra sum 3.35 tenor Jeremy Budd tenor Mark Dobell Mark Dobell (echo) 8 Esurientes 1.22 cm Esurientes 1.21 bl 4 Laudate pueri 6.01 Lauda Ierusalem (high) 4.13 9 Suscepit Israel 1.18 cn Suscepit Israel 1.20 soprano Grace Davidson bm Sonata sopra Sancta Maria 6.15 soprano Grace Davidson soprano Grace Davidson Charlotte Mobbs bn Charlotte Mobbs Charlotte Mobbs tenor Mark Dobell Ave maris stella 7.57 bl co Jeremy Budd soprano Grace Davidson Sicut locutus est 0.55 Sicut locutus est 0.55 bass Ben Davies Charlotte Mobbs bm Gloria Patri 2.33 cp Gloria Patri 2.37 Eamonn Dougan bass Eamonn Dougan tenor Jeremy Budd tenor Jeremy Budd 5 Pulchra es 3.58 Mark Dobell (echo) Mark Dobell (echo) soprano Grace Davidson bn Sicut erat 2.07 cq Sicut erat 2.00 Charlotte Mobbs bo Lauda Ierusalem (low) 4.17 4 5 Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643) VESPERS of 1610 The sumptuous collection of music for the singing of which the altar of the church Vespers published by Claudio Monteverdi was ceremonially censed. These are the in 1610 is an essential item in any record main items that were set by Monteverdi collection. It was first recorded complete and published in his Missa...ac Vespera... under Sir Anthony Lewis in 1953 and has cum nonnullis sacris concentibus (Mass subsequently been recorded many times and Vespers, with some sacred concertos) and in many guises. (Venice, 1610). Venice was then the main centre of music publishing in Italy. Latin Vespers was the main evening service of the Catholic church in Monteverdi’s day In a celebration of Vespers, between and it was the service which, together with the psalms and the hymn there was a Mass, prompted composers to produce short biblical reading, and following the their most elaborate sacred music. The Magnificat a prayer and dismissal. On musical items of Latin Vespers consisted most days in the church calendar all the of an introductory versicle and response texts of Vespers were sung to plainsong, – Deus in adiutorium meum intende – and the whole service would have Domine ad adiuvandum me festina (‘O appeared as an almost seamless stream God make speed to save us. O Lord make of music. The choice of psalms depended haste to help us’, as it was (mis)translated on the position of the service within the for the Anglican service of Evensong) – church calendar. For the feast of a female Harry Christophers inspecting original partbooks in Bologna, Italy. followed by five psalms, a hymn and a saint like the Blessed Virgin the five setting of the canticle Magnificat during psalms were those that Monteverdi sets, 6 7 and each would have been preceded and substitutes for the repeated antiphon after Monteverdi’s time; like most publications though not in the ducal basilica of Santa followed by a plainsong antiphon, the text the psalm (which leaves the performer of church music, it was at one level a Barbara, for which a separate musical of which was related to the specific feast with one antiphon substitute too few, since resource book, from which choirmasters establishment was maintained. The choirs day. The hymn Ave maris stella was sung at there is none provided for the Magnificat); who had the resources to tackle the music for which he wrote church music would all feasts of the Blessed Virgin. On major another view holds that they are simply that it contained would have chosen as few have consisted entirely of men, with feast days various of the texts usually sung extra pieces to be performed between the or as many settings as they needed. castratos singing the upper parts; and for to plainsong would be treated to more psalms, perhaps allowing the Sonata to be most occasions there would have been elaborate musical settings, varying from played and sung after the last psalm, where Monteverdi joined the duke’s chapel one voice per part. As is apparent from simple harmonisations of the plainsong it is placed in the book, or perhaps before probably early in 1590, and though we are the 1610 Vespers settings, Monteverdi’s through to full-blown polyphony with or after the Magnificat. mainly aware of his secular music from singers were a group of highly trained organ, strings, cornets and sackbuts.