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Reviewer: John
W. Barker
Monteverdi’s fabulous Vespers
collection of 1610 has almost obliterated awareness of his other sacred
music, of which he produced a great deal, especially since his long service
in Venice was as a church musician. A few isolated pieces of his were
included in published anthologies, but the bulk of the post-1610 material is
to be found in two publications. One, which he himself supervised, was
issued in 1641 under the title Selva Morale e Spirituale (Moral and
Spiritual Grove). And then, after his death, the Venetian publisher Vincenti
assembled a further collection of sacred works, issued in 1650.
There have been complete
recordings of both those collections, which are simply repertoires from
which directors of the day might pick and choose. Certainly Monteverdi
intended exactly that. A number of conductors have compiled Monteverdi
Vespers assemblages for recording over the years. I know ones led by Howard
Arman, Frieder Bernius, Roberto Gini, Françoise Lasserre, Gustav Leonhardt,
Kim Giles Nandfred, Andrew Parrot, Fritz Raml, and Denis Stevens. The two releases here follow those predecessors, if with divergences, and without any duplications. For his compilation (foolishly titled “The Other Vespers”) Hollingworth draws on the 1641 publication, from which he takes five Psalms (including the Beatus Vir familiar from many recordings), and a hymn, ‘Ut Queant Laxis’, throwing in a ‘Salve, O Regina’ from a 1624 anthology. Wilson, on the other hand (under the really fatuous album title of “Eternal Monteverdi”), mainly uses the 1650 publication, from which he takes five Psalms and a Marian Litany, slipping back to 1641 for a Magnificat. A motet, ‘O quam pulchra es’ is from the 1624 anthology; and Salve Regina, recently attributed to Monteverdi, is from a 1660 collection. Hollingworth includes a number of Vespers antiphons in plainchant, while Wilson prefers to ignore them in favor of interpolated motets. Both conductors flesh out Monteverdi’s Vespers materials by interweaving the music of other composers—with totally different (and non-duplicative) results. Hollingworth curiously bypasses the two Magnificats in the 1641 collection to prefer instead a setting of the text for 14 parts by Giovanni Gabrieli. His other interpolations include exclusively instrumental pieces by Dario Castello, Girolamo Frescobaldi, and Francesco Usper, plus liturgical items by Lodovico Grossi da Viadana, Ignazio Donati, and Palestrina— the last, an ‘Ave Verum Corpus’ with an ambitious decorative part that was added by the singer Giovanni Battista Bovicelli, rendered inappropriately here not by a singer but by a cornetto.
Wilson introduces two
instrumental pieces by Massimiliano Neri, two solo motets from Giovanni
Rigatti, and an ‘Ave Maris Stella’ hymn by Alessandro Grandi. In both recordings, many of the interpolated items are rarities. Both directors have superlative period instrumentalists at their disposal. Wilson’s singers are quite adequate, but Hollingworth’s are a bit stronger and more polished. In Wilson’s Monteverdi pieces I found my interest flagging sometimes, whereas Hollingworth’s 1641 selections have more musical substance. I think that may point up why the composer did not include all the 1650 pieces in his 1641 collection, exercising critical judgement as to their somewhat more modest and workaday qualities.
Monteverdi
collectors will want to investigate both these releases, though I would
argue for the Hollingworth album if only one is wanted. Both releases supply
full texts and translations. | |||||||
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