Vespers

I agree wholeheartedly with Johji Josquin, who points out the key elements to this splendid performance--it is sung "one to a part" and closely miked--which combine to help to make the music so immediate and alive, my head spun around from my desk at the first sung notes and I caught myself staring at the speaker. I have four other versions of these Vespers--Suzuki's on BIS, Gardiner's on London, Harnoncourt's, and Garrido's on K167/Harmonia Mundi--and, though Suzuki's is superb and finely done, this Alessandrini version is the one that brings the music to intimate life.

I don't write amazon reviews, but I must urge any love of Monteverdi a/o baroque choral music to take this performance completely seriously. It is so lovely, achingly so, it reminds me of how I felt the first time I heard any great piece of music.

Fabulously moving, beautiful, and both tenderly and fulsomely performed. Bravo! Really.

The Vesper's by Monteverdi have now achieved the status of a landmark work in the history of music which like the music of J.S. Bach gazes Janus-like into the future as well as backwards to the past. As one of the fathers of opera there is a flair and drama that looks forward to the Baroque era while at the same time - as a work written to try to impress the conservative tastes of the Roman papacy - it looks backwards with its complex part writing in the form of parody of a mass by Nicolas Gombert, In Ilio Temporo. Despite Monteverdi's acknowledgement of the rich polyphonic traditions established by the Prima Prattica, his fusion of this with radical new elements appears to have rather disconcerted the papacy and Monteverdi came away from this venture empty handed. I can only imagine the bitterness of the dissappointed this would have caused him as he has clearly put heart and soul into this extraordinary composition, for which only prosterity would acknowledge him long after his death.

Renaldo Alessandrini's reputation has been largely built around his recordings of Monteverdi's music and so the recording of the Monteverdi Vespers is something of a genuine event. The results are everything you could have wished for - even if some of the more dogmatic critics were surprisingly sniffy in their reaction. I too usually tend to fight shy of one-to-a-part performances but when it is done with as much elan as it is here it totally silences all criticism. I love the subtle moudling of phrasing, decoration, and tempi that a smaller ensemble with a highly select group of the best singers allows. The results here are more than just merely refreshing for often they are totally revelatory.

This recording takes pride of precedence amongst one-to-a-part performances of the Vespers. If you have enjoyed Alessandrini's Monteverdi before then get this version without a moment's hesitation. If you dogmatically refuse to have any truck with one-to-a-part then I suggest you go for the Suzuki on BIS - that recording also has a wonderfully ecstatic spontaneity and powerful grasp of the overall inspiration of the work as virtually no other. Really it is a matter of taste which you pick - they are both excellent.

The recording quality here is stunningly vivid and alive as you would expect from Naive. It is however somewhat closely miked - it sounds like you are sitting in the front row near the stage. Still, it is a vivid audiophile quality experience full of wonderfully rich detail, that stands in contrast to the more recessed mid-hall balance of the BIS recording.

There is absolutely nothing to fault in the musicianship of this performance of the Vespers by Concerto Italiano. Every one of the eleven singers delivers beautiful tone, sparkling style, and tight ensemble. Likewise the corps of instruments - cornetti, tromboni, flauti, strings, tiorba, arciliuto, and organo - is flawless in intonation and timbre. My ears tell me that conductor Rinaldo Alessandrini has given his cornetti, led by Doron Sherwin, unusual freedom to improvise ornamentation; at least I hear some licks that I don't recall from other performances.

It's the most subtle level of interpretation that I find a wanting in Alessandrini's Vespers. The whole performance seems vaguely neutral to me, and being neutral, Alessandrini has difficulty convincing my ears of the unity of the whole 2-CD affair. In comparison, the performance by Les Arts Florissants, led by William Christie, offers a thoroughly majestic, triumphant interpretation. Christie takes slightly more stately tempi and uses choral forces and extra instruments, but the key difference is in the conducting. At the other end of the interpretational spectrum, the recording by Tragicomedia under Stephen Stubbs is jubilant and amorous. Tragicomedia performs strictly one-on-a-part, and Stubbs takes brighter tempi in almost every section than either Christie or Alessandrini. Stubbs's conducting is more incisive rhythmically and he handles the triple rhythms more joyfully, a la ritornello. Both Christie and Stubbs get more definition from their continuo players, especially from the organs, emphasizing the structure of the music in three layers - voices, obbligato instruments, and continuous bass. As befits their different intentions, Christie's basso continuo is continuously robust (especially the dulcian) while Stubbs's is playful, even lilting at times. By the way, the Stubbs performance is a half step higher in pitch than either Alessandrini's or Christie's; the higher pitch would have been historically appropriate.

There you have it: Christie more spacious and magificent, Stubbs more intimate and lyrical, with Alessandrini between. IMHO of course, and nothing more.

*****

WAIT! Several weeks later! I've listened to the Concerto Italiano performance again, twice straight in fact. I must have had wax in my ears the first time. I totally under-rated it, especially the flamboyant affect of the singing. Very Italian! I don't mean to downgrade the Christie or Stubbs recordings, just to boost Alessandrini to the apex of the triangle, chiefly for pure sonority and for amazing detail.

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