Customer Reviews

Monteverdi: Vespro Della Beata Vergine

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This is simply an extraordinary performance from both a documentary and aesthetic perspective.

Recorded at St. Mark's Basilica in Venice, where Monteverdi was composer-in-residence from 1613, the sound quality is outstanding. I've heard so many choral performances recorded in Renaissance churches that sound lost and empty. The engineers have done something special here -- they have produced a disc that SOUNDs like what I imagine a performance of the Vespers would have sounded to Monteverdi's ears.

The performances themselves are about the best I have heard from the Monteverdis and the soloists. Not one voice sounds out of harmony or rhythm, and not one instrument sounds a false not. That is almost unheard of in a live recording.

I'm not sure that this is the definitive recording of this work, but I haven't heard many that have come close. Frankly, though the one-voice-per-part approach favoured by some HIP ensembles would be totally inappropriate. Venice wanted its music BIG and that's how Monteverdi wrote it.

Monteverdi's Vespers is one of my favourite musical works and it constantly astounds me that something written nearly 500 years ago can reach out across the centuries and "grab" one. I have about 6 different versions. I must confess that I go for the "grand" interpretation, as opposed to the "devotional" interpretation (e.g., Parrott). Of all the "grand" versions I've heard, this reigns supreme. Gardiner has probably done more than any other conductor to bring this work into the central repertoire, to take its rightful place alongside the B Minor Mass and "Messiah", so it's not surprising. Recorded in St,Mark's Cathedral, Venice (one historical theory says that this is where it was performed) with a small band of singers and players, the feeling and committment of the ensemble really hits you. In particular, the totally appropriately-named Monteverdi choir sing brilliantly. A colossal achievement! Somebody's going to have to work darn hard to better it!

What a job application. Looking for work around 1610, Claudio Monteverdi composed this massive work in hopes of Vatican employment. He even dedicated it to his anticipated future boss, Pope Paul V - kissing up has a long tradition in the Western world. Inexplicably, the Vatican wasn't moved. Instead, Monteverdi accepted the patronage of the Doge in Venice and became their Maestro di Capella in 1613. Whether or not this masterpiece ever received a public performance during his life remains controversial amongst music historians. Either way, it must have suitably padded his already impressive resume. So Monteverdi's arguably most famous work originated from a job search. Stranger things have happened.

"Vespro Della Beata Vergine" or "Vespers of 1610" follows the Roman Catholic structure for evening mass as laid out in the liturgical canonical hours (also known as "Vespers"; "Vesper" means "evening" in Latin). The first CD opens with the traditional chanted versicle (Deus in adiutorium meum intende, etc.) and suddenly explodes with a riveting choir belting out the doxology (Gloria Patri et Filio). Accompanying instrumentation adds to the effect. This work truly starts with an unforgettable bang. This helps emphasize the oft-repeated doxology (all of the succeeding Psalms conclude with this same stanza). Next, the work alternates between five Psalms and four Concertos, then continues with a sontata, a hymn, and finishes with an enthralling "Magnificat." Though the work's title explictly references the Virgin Mary, only two pieces revolve around her. Subsequently, some scholars have argued that this work could get structured around any Saint, and Monteverdi simply chose the Virgin Mary as a marketing ploy for the Vatican. Not only that, others dispute the location of the more secular Concertos. Two of these, "Nigra Sum" and "Pulchra Es" from "Song of Solomon", were probably a little saucy for religious works of the day. The ordering here follows the original manuscript.

Amazing music pervades these CDs. "Dixit Dominus" opens with ethereal singing, suggesting drifting angels or the clouds slowly parting. Then it fulminates like thunder as the choir sings the words of God: "Sit at my right hand, and I shall make of your enemies a footstool for you." "Laetatus sum" begins with a simple walking harpsichord line that recurs (one of Monteverdi's ritornellos), develops into dizzying choral arrangements, and concludes with a devastating "Amen." Though dancing probably wasn't intended, "Nisi Dominus" provides a sprightly enough rhythm to inspire any lazy feet, all the way to its final gentle resolution. "Ave maris stella" provides by far the most moving choral piece of the set. Ineffably ethereal notes levitate on air for nearly nine minutes. The final Magnificat remains stunning beyond words. This set includes two versions: one for seven parts and one for six.

John Eliot Gardiner was accused of taking liberties with Monteverdi's score. Apparently he embellished instrumentation and added voices for emphasis. Some even accused him of siphoning the sacred from the music. In other words, as Monteverdi straddled the Reniassance and the Baroque, this 1989 recording tips the scales in favor of highly charged Baroque. Those looking for a passionate interpretation of "Vespers" will find it here. Regardless, this release caused a surge in Gardiner's reputation as well as bolstering the then nascent authentic instrument movement. He could not have chosen a better recording locale: the gape-inducing Byzantine style St. Mark's Cathedral in Venice. Monteverdi's old stomping ground.

Monteverdi still doesn't have the name recognition of a Mozart or a Beethoven. Nonetheless, recordings such as this one doubtlessly helped direct attention to the once forgotten modernizer of Reniassance music. Recently, Monteverdi's name has experienced a rebirth. Many consider his "L'Orfeo" as the beginning of popular opera and his madrigals as the origin of modern song arrangement. His "Vespers" alone, sometimes equated to Bach's "St. Matthew Passion" and often called his most impressive work, should more than solidfy his name in the history of Western music for some time to come.

I discovered Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610 while listening to the radio in my car. I happened to flip to a channel playing the "Magnificat" and I was utterly mesmerized, haunted in fact by the sound until I chased down this CD.

This recording is both profounding beautiful and incredibly moving. You get a sense both of Monteverdi's great gifts as a composer, but also a sense of the sacred as well. Indeed, Monteverdi approached his subject matter with appropriate reverence and, it would seem, a bit of Divine inspiration. A tour of late-Renaissance/early-Baroque musical styles, the Vespers never bore, always providing yet another delightful surprise.

In short, this disc is a must for every music lover. If Monteverdi's Vespers doesn't touch you in some way, there's something wrong with you.

The Vespri conducted by Gardiner are - as usual in his case - absolutely outstanding. The quality of the soloists and the circumstance that the Monteverdi Choir keeps on using male voices for their alto and soprano lines make the CD a must for those of us who enjoy historical performances.

In my opinion, only comparable, and in some cases superior (the brass section is unbelievable), to the Savall recording.

Odd how differently people hear this recording. A number of English reviewers' pale sensibilities are offended by the robustness of this performance, whereas American contributors are by and large much more welcoming of Gardiner's large-scale approach. Personally I love its grandeur and attack; it epitomises the renewed confidence and momentum of Catholicism in the Counter-Reformation. If you want restraint and understatement, Andrew Parrot's one-voice-per-part version is for you, but I think his approach severely undermines and mischaracterises the nature of the music and its spiritual inspiration. For me, twenty-five years on, for all that I am by no means an indiscriminate fan of Gardiner's musicianship, this account leaves all others in the dust. It marks a huge improvement on his earlier version and provides the most alluring and seductive introduction possible to Monteverdi's sound-world.

Gardiner's almost aggressively phrased and paced introduction raises fears that he is going to be a gung-ho pace throughout, but he soon relaxes into the lyrical sections of the score and permits his singers the requisite space and freedom to do justice to the lovely melismata, gorgeous suspended harmonies and spicy discords. The spacious acoustic of St Mark's lends weight and nobility the sound without obscuring detail; the recording engineers have achieved a very satisfying compromise between reverberation and clarity. Gardiner has used substantial forces: a big choir and baroque orchestra, sometimes doubling the singers with instruments and choosing soloists who sing out without sounding either "white", hooty and precious or, at the other extreme, too "operatic". In fact the singing is the best feature of this account; both the soloists and choir are stupendously good, especially tenor Nigel Robson.

I place this amongst Sir JEG's finest achievements, something of a benchmark recording. I have certainly never felt the need to own or listen to any other.

This is an excellent recording of this work. All of the soloists are wonderful. I find the interpretation to be authentic to the period and robust without being dry or academic. Bravo!

MONTEVERDI'S VESPERS: ETHEREAL,UNIQUE AND SUBLIME!
Official ceremonial music was crucial to the image of Venice especially in its declining years around the turn of the 17th century. The Basilica of St. Mark's was the religious and musical focal-point for the whole city, as well as being the Doge's private chapel.

Monteverdi's Vespers blazed a new trail. His was the first such publication to intersperse psalm and extra-liturgical motets and to include a setting of the appropriate Marian hymn. The work is divided into thirteen sections, the 'Magnificat' that is the last section is in seven parts, and included is an alternative, smaller-scale six-part setting for voices and organ.

Scholars have yet to determine exactly why Claudio Monteverdi wrote these magnificent Vespers, but one theory is that he used them as a kind of application to become music director of Saint Mark's in Venice. Going on this assumption, John Eliot Gardiner brought his own Monteverdi Choir and the English Baroque Soloists to that hallowed cathedral for a miraculous live recording.

To mark the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Monteverdi Choir, two performances were conducted by Gardiner in May 1989, of this masterpiece, one private and the other public. The unique acoustics of Saint Mark's provides a shimmering, golden aura to the music-making and help to realize the crucial spatial effects Monteverdi wrote into the score.

The Vespers was a work of great daring that brought new expressive elements from secular forms like the madrigal and opera to sacred compositions. Never before had religious imagery been conveyed through music with such force. Take "Duo Seraphim" (the seventh movement) for example, where the echoing of the voices evokes the ethereal with sublime simplicity. This glorious music has never sounded more angelic.

I first purchased the DVD of this performance, and found it so exciting that I had to have the CD. It's a tremendously well-done and exciting rendition, just as one would expect from the Monteverdi Choir and Gardiner. His soloists are superb and add a great deal of excitement to the recording. I would like also to mention that the 'Magnificat' with six voices is not on the DVD, as it was recorded later in London,Tooting, All Saints church with the same group. The DVD has an excellent dissertation by Gardiner with scenes of Venice; a truly enjoyable visual as well as an audio treat.

If you are a lover of Monteverdi's music, then this recording and/or DVD is a MUST!

GRAMOPHONE CLASSICAL MUSIC GUIDE, 2010: "GARDINER'S RECORDING (OF THE VESPERS) SPECTACULARLY RECORDED LIVE IN ST.MARK'S HAS A PUNCHY CHORAL SOUND...EMPHATIC ENUNCIATION, BIG CONTRASTS AND DELIBERATE EXPLOITATION OF THE BUILDING'S SPACES. IT'S OUTRIGHT THEATRICALITY SETS IT APART FROM OTHER PERFORMANCES."

This is simply an extraordinary performance from both a documentary and aesthetic perspective.

Recorded at St. Mark's Basilica in Venice, where Monteverdi was composer-in-residence from 1613, the sound quality is outstanding. I've heard so many choral performances recorded in Renaissance churches that sound lost and empty. The engineers have done something special here -- they have produced a disc that SOUNDs like what I imagine a performance of the Vespers would have sounded to Monteverdi's ears.

The performances themselves are about the best I have heard from the Monteverdis and the soloists. Not one voice sounds out of harmony or rhythm, and not one instrument sounds a false not. That is almost unheard of in a live recording.

I'm not sure that this is the definitive recording of this work, but I haven't heard many that have come close. Frankly, though the one-voice-per-part approach favoured by some HIP ensembles would be totally inappropriate. Venice wanted its music BIG and that's how Monteverdi wrote it.

THIS IS AN ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL RECORDING - A MUST-HAVE FOR ANYONE WHO APPRECIATES BAROQUE MUSIC. RECORDED IN VENICE, THE FIDELITY IS AMAZING.