MONTEVERDI
The Other Vespers
DECCA CLASSICS
February 2017
Inspired by a rare sighting in 1620 of Monteverdi moonlighting away from St.Mark's Venice! Includes favourites as well as première recordings.
FEATURING:
Monteverdi - Beatus vir, Dixit Dominus (1640)
Cornetto improvisations over Palestrina
G.Gabrieli - Magnificat a 14
MONTEVERDI
The Other Vespers
DECCA / 2017
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Album Trailer
Monteverdi - The Other Vespers
Robert Hollingworth introduces the recording
2017 / 2:12
Laudate Pueri - Full Performance
Composed by Claudio Monteverdi
Featuring The English Cornett & Sackbut Ensemble
2017 / 7:51mins - Full performance
Magnificat a 14 - Full Performance
Composed by Giovanni Gabrieli
Featuring The English Cornett & Sackbut Ensemble
2018 / 7:51mins
The Music Explained
‘It's the Baroque, change everything!’
Robert Hollingworth on Monteverdi
2017 / 2:28mins
“There is plenty of warmth and animation in the superb music-making. I Fagiolini’s consort and solo singing are exemplary...In such sure hands (and throats) as these, Monteverdi’s psalm-settings reach their fullest capacity to enchant and astonish.”
GRAMOPHONE
REVIEWS
★★★★
“This is a glorious addition to the Monteverdi 450 celebrations.”
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
”Nothing here is more haunting than Palestrina’s Ave verum corpus (1561), with its solo cornett descant added by Giovanni Battista Bovicelli (1594). A ravishing disc.”
THE SUNDAY TIMES
★★★★
“a rich compilation...all the performances under Robert Hollingworth using professional and younger voices are gently moulded, resonantly beautiful: a noble celebration.”
THE OBSERVER
★★★★★
“The performances are exhilarating”
THE TIMES
PHOTO GALLERY
CLICK TO ENLARGE
Session photography by Matthew Brodie
DIRECTOR’S NOTE
This recordings on this CD, released during the Monteverdi 450th anniversary, are offered to balance the usual bias in favour of the 1610 Vespers. While ‘1610’ includes the five Vespers psalms suitable to feasts of the Blessed Virgin and other female saints, it does not include a full set for any male saints: these were included in Monteverdi’s 1641 publication, ‘Selva Morale e spirituale’. A choirmaster at the time would have needed both publications and our selection is taken from the latter.
Our inspiration is the occasion on 4th June 1620 when Monteverdi was seen by a Dutch visitor directing the Vespers for the Feast of the Nativity of John the Baptist at a church away from St Mark’s. The psalms chosen and the plainchant is for that feast.
As well as the main Vespers items, the recording includes intriguing extras: improvisatory violin sonata, sensuous Song of Songs motet, and most unusually divisions (ornamentation) based on music by Palestrina and performed by the ravishing soundworld of cornetto muto and four voices.
ROBERT HOLLINGWORTH
FULL TRACKLISTING
Monteverdi - The Other Vespers
RELEASED BY DECCA CLASSICS / 2017
01. Lodovico Viadana (1560 - 1627) - Deus in adiutorium meum / 1:44
02. Antiphon I / 0:20
03. Claudio Monteverdi (1567 - 1643) - Dixit Dominus, SV264 / 7:58
04. Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525 - 1594), Giovanni Battista Bovicelli (1550 - 1594) - Ave verum corpus / 5:45
05. Antiphon II / 0:30
06. Claudio Monteverdi (1567 - 1643) - Confitebor tibi, Domine, SV266 / 6:18
07. Ignazio Donati (1570 - 1638) - Dulcis amor Iesu / 4:22
08. Antiphon III / 0:22
09. Claudio Monteverdi (1567 - 1643) - Beatus Vir, SV268 / 8:30
10. Antiphon III / 0:22
11. Antiphon IV / 0:19
12. Claudio Monteverdi (1567 - 1643) - Laudate pueri, SV270 / 7:08
13. Dario Castello (1590 - 1644) - Sonata in D Minor / 4:56
14. Antiphon V / 0:26
15. Claudio Monteverdi (1567 - 1643) - Laudate Dominum, SV272a / 4:15
16. Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583 - 1643) - Toccata in G / 4:00
17. Chapter - Plainchant / 0:24
18. Claudio Monteverdi (1567 - 1643) - Ut queant laxis, SV279a / 2:42
19. Magnificat Antiphon / 0:56
20. Giovanni Gabrieli (1553 - 1612) - Magnificat a 14 / 7:24
21. Francesco Usper (1561 - 1641) - Sonata a 8 / 4:32
22. Benedicamus Domino - Plainchant / 1:43
23. Claudio Monteverdi (1567 - 1643) - Salve, O Regina, SV326 / 5:26
