LEGRENZI(1626–1690) Compiete, Op
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Giovanni LEGRENZI(1626–1690) Compiete, Op. 7 Prayers at the End of the Day Nova Ars Cantandi Ivana Valotti, Organ Giovanni Acciai WORLD PREMIERE RECORDING Giovanni Nova Ars Cantandi LEGRENZI Alessandro Carmignani, Soprano (1626–1690) Andrea Arrivabene, Contralto 1, 3–% Massimo Altieri, Tenor 1, 3–% Compiete con le lettanie Gianluca Ferrarini, Tenor 1, 3–% et antifone della B.V. a 5, Op. 7 (1662) Marcello Vargetto, Bass 1, 3–% Text: Bible 3–7 9–0, Anonymous 8 ! #–%, Hermannus Contractus (1013–1054) @ Ivana Valotti, Organ 1 Iube, domne, benedicere .................................................................................... 2:30 Giovanni Acciai 2 Confiteor Deo omnipotenti ................................................................................... 3:04 3 Converte nos, Deus (Psalmus 85 [84]) ................................................................. 2:45 We would particularly like to thank Monsignor Giancarlo Manzoli for allowing us to make 4 Cum invocarem (Psalmus 4) .................................................................................8:14 this recording in the Palatine Basilica of Santa Barbara in Mantua; thanks to Licia Mari, who looks after the Mantua diocesan historical archive, for her constant support 5 In te, Domine, speravi (Psalmus 31 [30]) .............................................................. 5:28 during the various stages of the recording. 6 Qui habitat in adjutorio Altissimi (Psalmus 91 [90]) ..............................................4:11 7 Ecce nunc benedicite Dominum (Psalmus 134 [133]) ......................................... 3:43 8 Te lucis ante terminum (Hymnus) ......................................................................... 1:23 9 In manus tuas, Domine (Responsorium brevis) ....................................................1:37 0 Nunc dimittis servum tuum, Domine (Canticum Simeonis) ................................. 5:00 ! Litaniae Beatae Mariae Virginis ........................................................................... 6:46 @ Alma Redemptoris mater (Antiphona mariana) ................................................... 2:54 # Ave, Regina caelorum (Antiphona mariana) ........................................................ 2:39 $ Regina caeli laetare (Antiphona mariana) ............................................................ 2:38 % Salve, Regina (Antiphona mariana) .......................................................................5:15 58:54 WORLD PREMIERE RECORDING Giovanni LEGRENZI (1626–1690) Ospedale dei Mendicanti in 1676. In the same year, composers ‘familiar with things studied in depth’.1 Compiete con le lettanie et antifone della B.V. a 5, Op. 7 (1662) Legrenzi competed to succeed Francesco Cavalli With his Op. 7, the Compiete, it was the first time (1602–1676) as maestro di cappella of San Marco, that he had tackled a corpus of prayers belonging but Natale Monferrato, former vice maestro of the to a liturgy rarely set to music, in comparison Compieta (in English ‘Compline’, derived from Ad the plural title Compiete (‘Complines’) and not Marcian chapel, was the preferred choice. with his countless Mass and Vesper settings. He Completorium – ‘completion’) represents the final Compieta. Five years later, in January 1681, Legrenzi essentially wanted to demonstrate that he had first- part of the Divine Office. It is the collection of Giovanni Legrenzi was born in Clusone, a replaced Antonio Sartorio as vice maestro to rate technical expertise and the education required prayers that, from the first half of the 6th century pleasant town near Bergamo, at that time a domain Monferrato. When Monferrato died, on 23 April to adapt the setting to the new stylistic norms – with the introduction of St Benedict’s Regola of the Venetian Republic, sometime in the first 1685, he finally became maestro di cappella of the which, proceeding along the lines of Monteverdian Monasteriorum – monks (and later also priests) in ten days of August 1626 (his baptism certificate ‘golden basilica’, occupying the same post held by seconda prattica,2 wished to place the words, the Roman church intoned over the course of the bears the date of 12 August). The little Giovanni the sublime Monteverdi 40 years before. in all their expressive power, all their emotional day. learned the first rudiments of music from his father, Giovanni Legrenzi died in Venice in his house sensuality and all their representative physicality, The Divine Office could follow the monastic Giovanni Maria, a violinist at the parish church of opposite the Church of San Lio on 27 May 1690 and at the centre of the act of creation. Conveying the cursus, used by monastic communities that Clusone. Because of his singular and exceptional was buried in Santa Maria della Fava. Thus ended sound of the words through the medium of the observed the Benedictine Rule, or the Roman musical talent, the young man was admitted to the the earthly existence of one of the most gifted, music became the constant guiding endeavour cursus. The latter was practised in the collegiate Accademia di Santa Maria Maggiore in Bergamo admired and influential composers of the latter half for Legrenzi the composer. Clearly, the preferred chapters of cathedrals, parish churches and by between 1639 and 1643 in order to prepare for the of the 17th century. formal model of setting the Compiete texts is some religious orders, such as mendicant friars priesthood and to complete his musical education Legrenzi’s rise to fame and esteemed reputation that of the multi-section ‘cantata’, consisting of and canons, and was also known as the secular with musicians such as Benedetto Fontana was remarkable not only in Italy, but across Europe, a succession of individual parts in contrasting cursus or canonic cursus. The main elements of the (organist at the basilica) and Giovanni Battista and would continue even after his death. Even styles, time signatures and tempos according to Divine Office were identical in both cases, but the Crivelli (maestro di cappella). Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frideric Handel formulas rooted in the stile concertato. In fact, with number and arrangement of these elements could On 30 August 1645 Legrenzi became the and Johann Adolph Hasse, enchanted by the beauty the exception of the Confiteor Deo omnipotenti vary between the two. organist at Santa Maria Maggiore, replacing of his superb music and his melodic invention, did (a kind of recitative-aria) and the hymn Te lucis Compline constitutes the final moment of prayer Francesco Rogantino. Due to conflicts with the not hesitate to choose Legrenzi’s melodies as ante terminum (an extended through-composed in the monastic or secular day. It is recited before Chapter of Santa Maria Maggiore, in October 1656 themes for their contrapuntal elaborations. section in ternary time), all the other pieces of the the day ends, and the monks or priests retire for he left Bergamo and accepted the post of maestro Aside from a few pieces that have survived in collection are set in a concertato style, articulated the night to rest (Ad Completorium). With the di cappella at the Accademia della Spirito Santo in manuscript form, Giovanni Legrenzi’s entire output with the frequent alternation between solo and exception of the Marian antiphons and the Litanies Ferrara, which he only held until 1665. His plays and of sacred music appeared in ten volumes published tutti. A refined example of this musical design is that sometimes accompany it, Compline is the one the Compiete manuscript, dedicated to his patron by the Venetian printers Alessandro Vincenzi, undoubtedly Qui habitat in adjutorio Altissimi, a hour of the Divine Office that never changes during the Marchese Ippolito Bentivoglio, date back to this Francesco Magni and Giuseppe Sala in the period piece based on its continual swapping between the the liturgical year. period. between 1654 and 1692. solo entries and the responses of the vocal quintet. Leaving Ferrara in June 1665, Legrenzi tried The complines, together with the litanies The Compiete is a work of dazzling beauty, 1 Quote taken from Legrenzi’s opera Eteocle e Polinice (libretto and antiphons of the Blessed Virgin by Giovanni to get hired, unsuccessfully, at the courts of the undoubtedly written to impress his generous by Tebaldo Fattorini, dates unknown), first performed at Teatro Legrenzi, Op. 7, published in Venice in 1662 and Habsburgs in Vienna, the Farnese in Parma and protector, Marchese Ippolito Bentivoglio, and in San Salvatore, Venice, Carnival, 1675. 2 Louis XIV in Paris. Attempts at being employed to Monteverdi’s Seconda Prattica (‘Second Practice, or Perfec- presented for the first time in the modern era in this particular the aristocratic and ecclesiastical world tion of Modern music’). ‘The Second Practice is the musical recording, faithfully follow the order of prayers in the post of maestro di cappella at the cathedrals of Ferrara. Legrenzi was at the beginning of his style which makes the “oration” (i.e. the word together with the final hour of the Holy Office as described above, of Milan (1669) and San Petronio in Bologna (1671 professional career: he wished to make his mark the meaning, communicative sense, spirit and concept that lie and 1673) also failed. He then moved to Venice, within it, as well as prosody, syntax and rhetoric) the mistress covering in a single collection the two versions on the musical world by all means possible, in of harmony (i.e. of the music and its phonics, grammar and intended for monastic and non-monastic use.