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GRAMOPHONE (07/2017)
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Decca 4831654  



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Reviewer: David Vickers

David Vickers admires a reconstruction of Venetian Vespers using music from Monteverdi’s Selve morale e spirituale, superbly performed by I Fagiolini and Robert Hollingwoth

In such sure hands (and throats) as these, Monteverdi’s psalm-settings reach their fullest capacity to enchant and astonish. Dixit Dominus (primo) achieves a thrilling synergy of articulate instrumental playing, fulsome choral ripienos and dexterous solo singing. Sonorous textures doubled  by trombones and harmonic twists from the violins are balanced perfectly in the descending chromaticism that word-paints ‘misericordia’ in Laudate Dominum (primo). Hollingworth argues in his booklet note (and more extensively online at a microsite dedicated to the project) that Monteverdi’s triple-time signatures are commonly performed too quickly – in a nutshell, he reckons that a late-Baroque dance aesthetic has been misapplied to Monteverdi’s late-Renaissance practice. These scholarly ideas directly inform the shape and personality of these gorgeous reinterpretations. Seen afresh in this light, Confitebor tibi, Domine (secondo) lilts gently and with delightful translucence, its measured pace aligned to an affectionate tone of delivery from the superb solo trio Ciara Hendrick, Nicholas Mulroy and Jonathan Sells. Similarly, the evergreen Beatus vir (primo) springs a double surprise: the opening section (four beats in a bar, over a ground bass) is a notch quicker than is usually the case (its light flexibility of touch and articulate delivery of text means that the details are never in jeopardy of being blurred in a rush), but the ensuing dancelike, tripletime middle section adopts a slower and softer pulse than usual. This means that the violin ritornello has increased lyricism, the florid solo voice parts are more congruent (the duo singing of mezzo-sopranos Clare Wilkinson and Ciara Hendrick is lovely), and the singers are able to communicate the text with more effective clarity than is often the case at a quicker speed. What’s more, the word-setting actually makes more sense when performed like this. Monteverdi’s small-scale setting of Salve, o regina (1624), sung mellifluously by Matthew Long, is a beautifully understated conclusion.

In truth, the choice of Monteverdi psalm-settings has a fair bit of overlap with Gustav Leonhardt’s ‘Vespri di S Giovanni Battista’ (Philips, 4/89) and also Rinaldo Alessandrini’s award-winning ‘Vespri solenni per la Festa di San Marco’ (Naïve, A/14), but Hollingworth’s curiosity to ask difficult questions and put practical suggestions to the test within a contextual performance brings more to mind the philological instincts and musical qualities of Andrew Parrott (to whom this recording is dedicated as ‘a respectful hommage’).

I Fagiolini were never going to offer anything mundane for the composer’s 450th birthday celebrations, and this ‘other Vespers’ contributes fresh ideas about how to interpret music about which plenty of matters are far from settled, in addition to being a fine advocacy of Monteverdi’s later Venetian-period sacred works.
 

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