Concerto Italiano
Usher Hall Concerts Series
Music Monteverdi: Vespro solenne per la festivitą di San
Marco
Performers Anna Simboli and Alena Dantcheva (sopranos); Andrea Arrivabene
and Gianluca Ferrarini (altos); Luca Dordolo and Vincenzo Di Donato (tenors);
Sergio Forestie and Matteo Bellotto (basses); Concerto Italiano: Mauro Lopes
and Riccardo Minasi (violins), Luca Peverini (cello), Carla Tutino (double bass),
Ugo Di Giovanni and Craig Marchitelli (theorbos), Ignazio Schifani (organ),
Francesco Moi (harpsichord), Rinaldo Alessandrini (Conductor)
Date 22 August 2005
Venue Usher Hall
Address Lothian Road
Reviewer Bruce Haughan
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Rinaldo Alessandrini
© Ferruccio Nobile
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The music for this programme has been selected, and the sequence reconstructed,
by Rinaldo Alessandrini, conductor of Concerto Italiano, from Selva morale
e spirituale, a huge collection of sacred music published by Monteverdi
in 1640-41. It represents some of the finest composition of the man who was
maestro di cappella of San Marco, Venice from 1613, three years after he had
composed his Vesperae of 1610, now his best-known work, until his death in 1643.
At this time, we discover from Professor John Wenham's helpful and informative
programme note, San Marco was the chapel of the Doge, rather than the cathedral
of Venice. The music for the evening service of Vespers, especially on the saint's
feast day, would have been directed by the choir at the Doge and his guests
seated in the chancel, rather than towards the congregation in the nave, of
the church. It was written for a more intimate setting than was the music for
the high mass.
A much more appropriate setting for this concert would have been in a church,
taking advantage of the greater resonance and more intimate atmosphere than
the Usher Hall can offer. Such a performance would have been even more moving.
As it was, some members of the audience sitting at a distance from the platform
(including those at the back of the Grand Circle) lost some of the exquisitely
fine detail of the singing and playing of this highly accomplished ensemble.
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The work is a series of psalms, each one prefaced by appropriate antiphons
intoned in plainsong by tenor and bass in unison. Psalm 109, Dixit Dominus,
produced some splendid sound painting: 'Dominus a dextra tuis, confregit in
die irae suae reges' was suing with sonorous gravitas, and the water fairly
gushed at 'De torrent in via bibet'. Psalm 110 Confitebor tibi Domine
bowled along joyfully, leading into Beatus vir qui timet Dominum, Psalm
111, the best-known piece of the evening. This is normally performed fully chorally
at a slower tempo, and those who know it in that form were impressed at the
fast tempo at which soloists can take it. Towards the end of Psalm 112, Laudate
pueri Dominum, the sweet voices of the sopranos were no match for the vigour
of the male altos, but perhaps this was deliberately appropriate for the final
verse, 'Qui habitare facit sterilem in domo, matrem filiorum laetantem' ('He
maketh the barren woman to keep house, and to be a joyful mother of children')!
The sopranos revived in Psalm 116, Laudate Dominum, also well-known as
a choral piece, to give as good as they got. The sequence ended with the hymn
Exultet orbis gaudiis and the glorious Magnificat, again taken at a tremendous
tempo. The decorations provided by all the strings were suitably echoed by the
fluid runs in the soprano parts, and the carefully controlled crescendo at 'Et
misericordia eius' led into the triumphal finale 'Sicut locutus est ad patres
nostros, Abraham et semini eius in saecula' and Gloria.
This sequence by Concerto Italiano was indeed a tour de force. The ecstatic
audience was delighted with the performance, and the ensemble and conductor
took five calls. In the right setting it would have been absolutely stunning.
It would also make a CD really worth having.
© Bruce Haughan. 24 August 2005. Published on www.edinburghguide.com
