11. Monteverdi Vespro della Beata Vergine
Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists, His Majestys Sagbutts & Cornetts, Sir John Eliot Gardiner
Welcome back to the top 50 classical recordings of all time! I took a little break from writing to catch up on some research for this list. We have reached #11 on our way to the top 50, and a reminder that within the top 50 the number on the list is not intended to indicate a ranking.
Our next entry is a reference recording of the Vespro Della Beata Vergine (Vespers of the Blessed Virgin) also known as the Vespers of 1610 by the Italian Renaissance / Baroque composer Claudio Monteverdi recorded by The Monteverdi Choir; The London Oratory Junior Choir; His Majesties Sagbutts & Cornetts; and the English Baroque Soloists conducted by Sir John Eliot Gardiner on the Archiv record label. We will refer to the work as the Vespers from this point forward.
The Composer
Claudio Monteverdi (b. 1567 – d. 1643) was an Italian composer that probably more than any other composer is credited with bridging the transition from the Renaissance period to the Baroque period in music. If you trace Monteverdi’s progress from his earliest works to his latest works, the shift in musical thinking was significant. Moving from Renaissance polyphony to Baroque splendor did not happen overnight, and along the way Monteverdi was the target of quite a lot of criticism due to his alleged expressive “imperfections”. At the time, the rules of musical counterpoint superseded expressive considerations. What Monteverdi did was use music to express the text by whatever means necessary, including using so-called incorrect counterpoint techniques. Thankfully his incorrectness blazed a trail into a new, fertile period of musical development.
Monteverdi worked in the court of the Gonzaga family in Mantua, Italy from 1590 to 1612. Eventually he would have differences with the Gonzaga court, and would look for work elsewhere. In 1612 he was appointed maestro di cappella at St. Mark’s Cathedral in Venice, a post he would hold for the rest of his life. Importantly, Monteverdi was really the earliest composer of “opera” that still has his works regularly performed today. In fact, the word opera had not been invented yet. He is known especially for the ground-breaking opera Orfeo from 1607, and others such as L’incoronazione di Poppea that are still performed regularly today. However, there was a very long period of time when Monteverdi’s music was forgotten and not performed. From around the 1950s, interest in his music has been revived tremendously and since then it has been performed and recorded regularly.
Vespers della Beata Vergine
I must admit that I quickly tire of listening to most music from the Renaissance period, which is why Monteverdi is so refreshing. Even though he was really a baroque composer in his style, he was still using instruments and techniques from the renaissance. When we turn to his Vespers, what we hear is a bold, new style that is almost operatic, and includes dances, concerti sections for voices and orchestra, and various accompanying instruments. He needed to compose a work for the Feast of the Assumption of Mary, and hence the Vespers were written for the occasion. However, the resulting work really goes beyond just liturgical music since some of the texts chosen by Monteverdi were certainly controversial and non-traditional. Vespers is based on the evening prayer from the daily office or Canonical Hours taken from the official daily prayers of the Roman Catholic Church. The prayers are psalms, hymns, canticles, and readings with responsories. It is speculated that Monteverdi wrote these Vespers with the cathedral of St. Mark’s in Venice specifically in mind, due to the extremely resonant acoustic of the space. There are various galleries, balconies, and lofts throughout the church and the music seems designed to take advantage of the echoing and immersive quality produced within the space.
The piece begins with nearly the same brass fanfare and toccata that is heard at the beginning of his opera Orfeo. It is a stunning beginning that awakens the senses and raises the spirit. Between the psalms, Monteverdi places movements termed concertos or sonatas from biblical sources, and again where this piece diverges from tradition at the time, there is often a theatrical feel to the music. While this may sound odd to anyone attending a Roman Catholic Mass today, at the time it was apparently common practice in Venice to include non-liturgical music in the service. You may be aware that in a traditional Mass where the parts of the Mass are sung to a particular musical setting, it was conventional to precede the music with a “plainchant” appropriate to the feast day. However, Monteverdi instead places the plainchant text within the music itself. On the recording we are reviewing here, the conductor John Eliot Gardiner dispenses with the plainchant because he considered it redundant. The inclusion of two Magnificat settings in the recording below is interesting, especially as they differ quite a bit from each other.
The Recording
If you wonder how Monteverdi’s Vespro della Beata Vergine would actually sound being performed in St. Mark’s Cathedral in Venice, we fortunately have this evocative recording by the Monteverdi Choir, the English Baroque Soloists, His Majestys Sagbutts and Cornetts, led by the English conductor Sir John Eliot Gardiner, which was actually recorded live in St. Mark’s. It is a unique live recording and makes for enthralling listening. The soloists include some young singers that would later become stars in the classical music world: Ann Monoyios, Bryn Terfel, Michael Chance, and Alastair Miles among others.
Sir John Eliot Gardiner, now 78 years of age, made his first mark in the classical music business with his first recording of Monteverdi’s Vespers back in 1964 with his own Monteverdi Choir. The recording we are currently reviewing is his second recording made 25 years later live at St. Mark’s in Venice and also captured on film by the BBC. Gardiner began conducting at the age of 15, and throughout his career has left his mark especially as a champion of Baroque music. Gardiner’s own orchestras, the English Baroque Soloists and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique have advanced and refined period instrument performances. Many Gardiner led performances and recordings have garnered critical acclaim and have done well commercially. Today Gardiner is known for illuminating and dynamic performances of Bach, Beethoven, Berlioz, and Handel among others.
What Gardiner and his forces accomplish with this recording of Monteverdi’s Vespers is an atmospheric and ethereal sound that really puts us inside St. Mark’s Cathedral. It has the feeling of a very special event, captured for posterity. The resonance and reverberation that can be easily heard on the recording results in a sort of echo effect that, for me personally, lends greater authenticity to the performance. At times, you will notice the soloists and instruments sound either farther away or closer to the microphones depending on the desired effect. It all contributes to the sacred feeling of the recording. While some may lament the lack of crispness in the sound due to the space, the tradeoff is a unique recording of atmospheric beauty and expressiveness.
Other recommendable recordings of Monteverdi’s Vespers include:
La Capella Reial, Coro del Centro Musica Antica di Padova, conductor Jordi Savall on the AliaVox Heritage label. 2007.
Boston Baroque, conductor Martin Pearlman. Telarc label. 2006
Concerto Italiano, conductor Rinaldo Alessandrini. Naïve label. 2004.
Dunedin Consort, conductor John Butt. Linn Records. 2017.
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Notes:
Brennan, Gerald. Schrott, Allen. Woodstra, Chris. All Music Guide to Classical Music, The Definitive Guide. All Media Guide. Pp. 866-867, 873. Backbeat Books, San Francisco. 2005.
Kozinn, Allan. The New York Times Essential Library Classical Music, A Critic’s Guide to the 100 Most Important Recordings. Pp. 19-22. Times Books. Henry Holt and Company. New York. 2004.
Whenham, John (1997). Monteverdi, Vespers (1610). Cambridge University Press. p. 85. ISBN 0-521-45377-1.