Composer: Giovanni Gabrieli, Alessandro Grandi, Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi, Francesco Usper, Giovanni Valentini
Performer: La Cetra Vocalensemble Basel
Orchestra: La Cetra Barockorchester Basel
Conductor: Andrea Marcon
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Deutsche Grammophon
Catalogue: 4862977
Release: 2022
Size: 1.65 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Monteverdi: Vespro della beata Vergine (1610)
01. Deus in adiutorium – Domine ad adiuvandum
02. Gabrieli: Intonazione del I tono
Monteverdi: Selva morale e spirituale
03. Psalm 109: Dixit Dominus II, SV 264
Grandi: Motetti a due voci
04. O felix, o lucidissima nox
05. Gabrieli: Intonazione del undecimo tono, C 249
Monteverdi: Selva morale e spirituale
06. Psalm 110: Confitebor tibi, Domine III (alla francese), SV 267
Usper: Compositioni armoniche, Op. 3
07. Sonata a 8 con quattro soprani
08. Gabrieli: Intonazione quinto tono alla quarta bassa
Monteverdi: Selva morale e spirituale
09. Psalm 111: Beatus vir I, SV 268
Grandi: Motetti a due voci
10. O intemerata
11. Gabrieli: Intonazione Secondo Tono
Monteverdi: Selva morale e spirituale
12. Psalm 112: Laudate pueri II, SV 271
13. Monteverdi: Venite, siccientes
14. Gabrieli: Intonation del ottavo tono
Monteverdi: Selva morale e spirituale
15. Psalm 116: Laudate Dominum I, SV 270
Gabrieli: Sonate e Canzoni
16. Sonata XVIII a 14
17. Monteverdi: Selva morale e spirituale
18. Hymnus: Christe redemptor omnium
19. Valentini: Hodie Christus natus est
20. Gabrieli: Intonation del nono tono
Monteverdi: Selva morale e spirituale
21. Magnificat I, SV 281
22. Gabrieli: Intonatione del decimo tono
23. Monteverdi: Cantate Domino
On 29 December 1616 Claudio Monteverdi wrote to the poet Alessandro Striggio — who was also the secretary to the Duke of Mantua — to apologize for his late reply, which he attributed to “the hard work that had to be done on the Mass for Christmas Eve, for what with composing it and copying it out I had to give up the entire month of December, almost without a break”. By 1616 Monteverdi had been the maestro di cappella at St Mark’s for three years. Here the Christmas festivities placed a particularly heavy burden on his shoulders. Not only did he have to compose a new polyphonic Mass, he also had to write numerous other works for the Solemn Vespers on Christmas Eve at St. Mark’s as well as for Christmas Day itself at San Giorgio Maggiore, and for additional services associated with the Christmas liturgy. The musicians of the Doge’s cappella would then be joined by famous soloists who were in the city for the opening of the new opera season, while other singers and instrumentalists were similarly enlisted for these magnificent celebrations.
The Vespro veneziano that Andrea Marcon has assembled for this new recording is inspired by the resplendent sounds of the music that was performed at the great Christmas Vespers in St. Mark’s in the presence of the foremost dignitaries of La Serenissima and a large audience of aristocrats and visitors from across Europe. This reconstruction features works from various printed anthologies of works by Monteverdi and his contemporaries and presents the sort of Vespers that might have been heard in Venice over the Christmas period during the long incumbency of “il divino Claudio” as maestro di cappella at St Mark’s — he held the post from August 1613 until his death on 29 November 1643.