Venetian Vespers

Venetian Vespers - 1643
Monteverdi / Rigatti / Grandi / Cavalli
Gabrieli Consort & Players - Paul McCreesh
Deutsche Grammophon Archiv 437 552 (2 CDs)
Archiv 476 1868 (2 CDs)

Contents:

  1. Sacristy bell
  2. Gabrieli: Intonazione (organ)
  3. Versicle & Response - Deus in adiutorium / Domine ad adiuvandum (chant)
  4. Antiphon - Angelus Domini (chant)
  5. Rigatti: Psalm - Dixit Dominus (2 choirs of 5 voices)
  6. Grandi: Motet - O intemerata (tenor, chitarrone, organ)
  7. Antiphon - Beata es Maria (chant)
  8. Monteverdi: Psalm - Laudate pueri (5 voices)
  9. Banchieri: Suonata prima (organ)
  10. Antiphon - Beatam me dicent (chant)
  11. Monteverdi: Psalm - Laetatus sum (6 voices)
  12. Finetti: Motet - O Maria, quae rapis corda hominum (2 countertenors, 2 chitarrones)
  13. Antiphon - Haec est quae nescavit (chant)
  14. Rigatti: Psalm - Nisi Dominus (2 countertenors, baritone)
  15. Banchieri: Dialogo secondo (organ)
  16. Antiphon - Ante thronum (chant)
  17. Cavalli: Psalm - Lauda Jerusalem (2 choirs of 4 voices)
  18. Grandi: Motet - O quam tu pulchra es (soprano, harp)
  1. Anon: Praeambulum (organ)
  2. Chapter - Ecce virgo (chant)
  3. Monteverdi: Hymn - Deus qui mundum crimine iacentem (baritone)
  4. Versicle & Response - Ave Maria / Dominus tecum (chant)
  5. Antiphon - Spiritus Sanctus (chant)
  6. Rigatti: Magnificat (8 voices)
  7. Marini: Sonata con tre violini in eco (3 violins, chitarrone, organ)
  8. Collect - Dominus vobiscum / Deus, qui de beatae Mariae (chant)
  9. Dismissal - Dominus vobiscum / Benedicamus Domino (chant)
  10. Monteverdi: Motet - Laudate Dominum (tenor, chitarrone, organ)
  11. Fasolo: Intonazione (organ; excerpt)
  12. Rigatti: Motet - Salve regina (tenor, baritone, 2 chitarrones, harp)

Performers: Tessa Bonner (soprano), Susan Hemington Jones (soprano), Janet Coxwell (soprano), Catherine King (soprano), David Hurley (countertenor), Timothy Wilson (countertenor), James Huw-Jeffries (countertenor), Andrew Watts (countertenor), Charles Daniels (tenor), Mark le Brocq (tenor), Angus Smith (tenor), Andrew Tusa (tenor), Robert Horn (tenor), Jeremy Taylor (tenor), Gerard O'Bierne (tenor), Charles Pott (baritone), Peter Harvey (baritone), Jonathan Best (bass), Adrian Peacock (bass), Richard Savage (bass), Florian Deuter (violin), Frances Turner (violin), Henrietta Wayne (violin), Francis Baines (violone), Nicholas Perry (cornet), William Adams (cornet), Richard Cheetham (sackbut), Paul Nieman (sackbut), Patrick Jackman (sackbut), Frances Eustace (dulcian), Paula Chateauneuf (chitarrone), Fred Jacobs (chitarrone), Celia Harper (harp), Timothy Roberts (organ), James Johnstone (organ)

Playing time: 96'

Recording date: September 1990

This recordings offers a speculative reconstruction of the First Vepsers of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin as it might have been celebrated in St. Mark's, Venice in 1643. Composers represented are Giovanni Gabrieli, Giovanni Antonio Rigatti (1615-1649), Alessandro Grandi (c.1586-1630), Claudio Monteverdi, Adriano Banchieri (1568-1634), Giacomo Finetti (fl.1605-1631), Francesco Cavalli, Biagio Marini (c.1587-1663), and Giovanni Battista Fasolo (c.1600-c.1659).

Besides the named forces above, there are discreet doublings by the winds as well as extended continuo.

Programs of earlier large-scale Venetian services:

Willaert: Complete Works, Volume 12
Vespro di Natale (Venezia, 1555)
I Piccoli Musici / Delitiæ Musicæ - Marco Longhini
Stradivarius 33373
The Feast of San Rocco - Venice 1608
Musica Fiata Köln / La Capella Ducale - Roland Wilson
Sony 66254 (2 CDs)
A Venetian Coronation 1595
Grand ceremonial music for the coronation of Doge Marino Grimani
Gabrieli Consort & Players - Paul McCreesh
Virgin Veritas 59006
Music for San Marco in Venice
Monteverdi / Gabrieli / Cavalli
Balthasar Neumann Choir - Thomas Hengelbrock
Deutsche Harmonia Mundi 77531
Lo Sposalizio
The Wedding of Venice to the Sea
The King's Consort - Robert King
Hyperion 67048 (2 CDs)

And another program of similar material:

Venice preserv'd
Academy of Ancient Music - Christopher Hogwood
L'Oiseau Lyre 425 891

A comparable, reconstructed Roman ceremony:

Vespro della Beata Vergine
Foggia / Graziani / Giamberti / Vicenti
Canticum Novum
L'Empreinte Digitale 13086

A fine recording devoted entirely to Cavalli:

Francesco Cavalli: Vespro della beata Virgine / Musiche Sacre
Concerto Palatino - Bruce Dickey & Charles Toet
Harmonia Mundi 905219/20 (2 CDs)

A related anthology of music in the wake of Monteverdi:

The Heritage of Monteverdi: Dialoghi Venetiani
Scarrani / Picchi / Marini / Cavalli / Uccellini / Rossi / Merula / Monteverdi / Kapsberger
La Fenice - Jean Tubery
Ricercar 157142

Along with Monteverdi and his protegés in Venice, the composition of music in Naples continued, of course. A recording devoted to that repertory:

Lo Monteverde Voltato a lo Napolitano
Musici delle Cappelle di Napoli al tempo di Monteverdi
Cappella della Pietà de Turchini - Antonio Florio
Symphonia SY 93S19

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Todd M. McComb