Antonio Vivaldi1678-1741

Antonio Vivaldi 1678-1741 Pietà Sacred works for alto Clarae stellae, scintillate rv 625 Stabat Mater rv 621 Filiae maestae Jerusalem rv 638 from Gloria rv 589: Domine Deus Longe mala, umbrae, terrores rv 629 Salve Regina rv 618 Concerto for strings and continuo rv 120 Philippe Jaroussky countertenor Ensemble Artaserse 2 Pietà Vivaldi is the composer who has brought me the most luck throughout my career – by a long way. After numerous recordings devoted to less well known figures such as Johann Christian Bach, Caldara and Porpora, I felt a need that was as much physical as musical to return to this great composer. This release focuses on his motets for contralto voice, thereby rounding off – after discs of his cantatas and opera arias – a three-part set of recordings of music by the Red Priest. His celebrated Stabat Mater is one of the great classics of the countertenor reper toire, but I also very much wanted to record the motet Longe mala, umbrae, terrores, a piece that I find absolutely fascinating. This disc is a milestone for me, because it is the first time I have made a recording with my own ensemble Artaserse in a fuller, more orchestral line-up. It was an exciting experience, both on the musical and on the personal level, to direct so many musicians and sing at the same time. I would like to thank all the musicians who took part for their talent, patience and dedication, and I hope that this recording will mark the beginning of a new direction in my musical career. May Vivaldi continue to bring me luck! Philippe Jaroussky 3 Clarae stellae, scintillate rv 625 from Gloria rv 589 1 Clarae stellae, scintillate 5:24 20 Domine Deus 3:49 2 Coeli repleti iam novo splendore 0:48 Emmanuel Laporte oboe 3 Nunc iubilare 2:08 4 Alleluia 2:23 Longe mala, umbrae, terrores rv 629 21 Longe mala, umbrae, terrores 5:03 Stabat Mater rv 621 22 Recedite, nubes et fulgura 0:33 5 Stabat Mater dolorosa 3:06 23 Descende, o coeli vox 7:23 6 Cuius animam gementem 1:45 24 Alleluia 2:22 7 O quam tristis 1:46 8 Quis est homo 3:22 Salve Regina rv 618 9 Quis non posset 1:56 25 Salve Regina 3:53 10 Pro peccatis 1:42 26 Ad te clamamus 1:34 11 Eia Mater 3:29 27 Ad te suspiramus 2:58 12 Fac ut ardeat 1:45 28 Eia ergo, advocata nostra 1:26 13 Amen 0:53 29 Et Jesum benedictum fructum 1:36 30 O clemens 2:24 Filiae maestae Jerusalem rv 638 Introduzione al Miserere 78:30 14 Filiae maestae Jerusalem 1:58 15 Sileant zephyri 6:26 16 Sed tenebris diffusis 1:01 Concerto for strings and continuo rv 120 17 Allegro non molto 1:39 18 Largo 1:38 4 19 Allegro 2:02 Ensemble Artaserse Violins 1 Alessandro Tampieri leader Petr Ruzicka leader, 5-13 Guillaume Humbrecht Baptiste Lopez Julien Chauvin Violins 2 Raul Orellana principal 2nd violin José Manuel Navarro Giorgia Simbula Katia Krasutskaya Violas Marco Massera Barbara Palma Cellos Emilia Gliozzi * Elisa Joglar Harpsichord/Organ Yoko Nakamura * Double bass Guillaume Arrignon * Theorbo Claire Antonini * Oboes Emmanuel Laporte 5 Vincent Blanchard * Continuo The priest-composer From 1710 onwards, Antonio Vivaldi – priest, virtuoso violinist and a famed composer of concertos – was commissioned by churches and religious institutions in Brescia, Padua and Vicenza to write sacred works for festive occasions and memorial ceremonies. At this period, the religious establish - ments of his native city, Venice, were by contrast somewhat reluc tant to use his services. The churches of Venice, and in particular Saint Mark’s, favoured the sumptuous polyphony of Gabrieli or the austere a cappella textures of Legrenzi over the jaunty ritornellos, colourful orchestrations and dramatic contrasts that characterised Vivaldi’s trail-blazing works. It was probably in Brescia, the home city of the Vivaldi family, that he made his debut as a com - poser of sacred music in 1712 – just a year before making his official debut as an opera composer with Ottone in villa, which also received its first performance outside Venice, in the city of Vicenza. We owe Vivaldi’s first steps in the field of sacred music to Brescia’s Congregazione dell’Oratorio di San Filippo Neri, which commissioned him to write a setting of the Stabat Mater, now preserved in the Giordano 33 codex of the Biblioteca Nazionale of Turin. This work, which in 1939 became one of the first pieces by Vivaldi to be heard by a twentieth-century audience, was first performed in the Congregazione’s church, the Chiesa Santa Maria della Pace, probably on 18 March 1712, the feast of the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Brescia Oratorians rarely commissioned new works and their repertoire consisted mainly of adaptations of existing pieces. The com mission for a new Stabat Mater was thus quite exceptional, as was the financial outlay, and attests to the reputation that Vivaldi – whose instrumental music was already known through out northern Italy and a good part of Europe – enjoyed by then. Those in charge at the Congregazione had no doubt been won over when this extraordinary priest- composer played for them a year earlier. It is easy to imagine the effect that this sparely-written masterpiece had on listeners at its first performance. The accom paniment is provided by a small ensemble (four violins, cello, double bass and organ; a viola may also have been used) and the work 6 was performed by a castrato, or more likely a countertenor, possibly the renowned Filippo Sandri, who was paid a handsome fee by the Congregazione on more than one occasion. The anonymous medieval text of the Stabat Mater has been attributed both to Jacopone da Todi and to Pope Innocent III. Vivaldi set only the first ten verses, in accordance with what was then common practice when the hymn – which was not yet officially part of the Roman Missal – was performed during Vespers. The first three verses are given music full of subtle contrasts; the same musical material is then repeated exactly in the next three verses. Vivaldi’s sublime setting simul - taneously conveys love, sorrow and devotion, and in this respect an important part is played by the spare but extraordinarily intense accompaniment. The music never strays far from the gloomy spheres of F minor and C minor, and alternates between slow tempi (Largo, Adagissimo, Lento) and moderate ones (Andante). No doubt the Brescia faithful were moved to shed as many tears as Christ’s mother did at the foot of the cross. The gates of Heaven do not open until the final Amen, an ethereal whirlwind that ends on a bright major chord. Vivaldi’s first attempt at writing a piece of sacred music revealed the hand of a master. A year after the first performance of the Stabat Mater Vivaldi was at last called on to write some sacred works for Venice. He owed his lucky break to Francesco Gasparini, the maestro di coro at the Ospedale della Pietà, one of four major charitable institutions in Venice that maintained an impressive orchestra and choir, and at which Vivaldi then held the prestigious post of maestro di violino. As the Ospedale’s choirmaster, Gasparini was expected to compose and conduct its sacred music. How ever, on 23 April 1713, he asked the board of governors to grant him leave of absence for about six months on account of health and family problems. He no doubt promised to continue to write new works for the Pietà, but after a stay in Florence he settled permanently in Rome and never returned to his post in Venice. Gasparini’s duties were unofficially assigned to Vivaldi, pend - ing the appointment of a perma nent replacement. This ‘interim’ period lasted three years and gave Vivaldi the chance to produce several masterworks of sacred music. On 2 June 1715, the governors of the Pietà awarded him a bonus of 50 ducats, almost as much as his annual salary, and corresponding to the substantial annual bonus customarily accorded to the maestro di coro. In their deliberations, they justified this step by citing Vivaldi’s ‘well-known 7 capacity for hard work and fruitful labours... not only in instrumental teaching, the results of which have been universally applauded’ but also in ‘the excellent musical works that he has supplied since the departure of Maestro Gasparini’, including ‘a complete Mass, a vespers, an oratorio, and more than 30 motets and other pieces’. The Mass referred may well have included the Gloria in D, rv 589, now as well known as Vivaldi’s famous concertos. The Gloria is a masterpiece written in an opulent concertato style – in other words, with alternating arias and choruses in contrasting tempi and keys. The exhilarating rhythmic drive of this magni ficent musical fresco occasionally gives way to gentler passages, most notably in the sublime sicilienne that is the Domine Deus. Here the soloist is accompanied by an oboe, as in this performance, or a violin obbligato (Vivaldi’s manuscript score allows for either alternative), and the whole movement is imbued with a sense of other-worldly rapture; according to Michael Talbot, it represents ‘the epitome of melting Vivaldian lyricism’. The Pietà governors also praised Vivaldi for having written ‘more than 30 motets’. Through out his career, Vivaldi excelled in this genre, which gave singers of sacred music the chance to demonstrate that their vocal prowess equalled that of opera singers. Using the conventional structure (of two arias in contrasting tempi linked by a recitative and followed by a brilliant Alleluia) as his starting- point, he took the form to fresh heights by infusing it with his own inimitable brand of melodic and rhythmic inspiration.

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