Vespro della Beata Vergine: Deus in adjutorium meum intende - C. Monteverdi
Vespro della Beata Vergine: Domine ad adjuvandum me festina - C. Monteverdi
Vespro della Beata Vergine: Psalmus 109: Dixit Dominus - C. Monteverdi
Vespro della Beata Vergine: Concerto: Nigra sum - C. Monteverdi
Vespro della Beata Vergine: Psalmus 112: Laudate, pueri, Dominum - C. Monteverdi
Vespro della Beata Vergine: Concerto: Pulchra es - C. Monteverdi
Vespro della Beata Vergine: Psalmus 121: Laetatus sum - C. Monteverdi
Vespro della Beata Vergine: Concerto: Duo Seraphim - C. Monteverdi
Vespro della Beata Vergine: Psalmus 126: Nisi Dominus - C. Monteverdi
Vespro della Beata Vergine: Concerto: Audi, coelum - C. Monteverdi
Vespro della Beata Vergine: Psalmus 147: Lauda, Jerusalem, Dominum - C. Monteverdi
Vespro della Beata Vergine: Sonata sopra 'Sancta Maria, ora pro nobis' - C. Monteverdi
Track Listings (20) - Disc #2
Vespro della Beata Vergine: Hymnus: Ave maris stella - Claudio Monteverdi
Vespro della Beata Vergine: Magnificat - Claudio Monteverdi
Vespro della Beata Vergine: Et exultavit - Claudio Monteverdi
Vespro della Beata Vergine: Quia respexit - Claudio Monteverdi
Vespro della Beata Vergine: Quia fecit mihi magna - Claudio Monteverdi
Vespro della Beata Vergine: Et misericordia eius - Claudio Monteverdi
Vespro della Beata Vergine: Fecit potentiam - Claudio Monteverdi
Vespro della Beata Vergine: Deposuit potentes - Claudio Monteverdi
Vespro della Beata Vergine: Esurientes implevit bonis - Claudio Monteverdi
Vespro della Beata Vergine: Suscepit Israel - Claudio Monteverdi
Vespro della Beata Vergine: Sicut locutus est - Claudio Monteverdi
Vespro della Beata Vergine: Gloria Patri - Claudio Monteverdi
Vespro della Beata Vergine: Sicut erat in principio - Claudio Monteverdi
Audite principes - Claudio Monteverdi
Hodie Christus natus est - Claudio Monteverdi
Angelus ad pastores - Claudio Monteverdi
Quem vidistis, pastores? - Claudio Monteverdi
Salvator noster - Claudio Monteverdi
O magnum mysterium - Claudio Monteverdi
Exultent caeli - Claudio Monteverdi
One of the most grand and eloquent liturgical works ever written, Monteverdi's Vespers has enjoyed near-perpetual favor with performers and listeners since its composition in 1610. It may have been written for use as an ... more » "audition" piece for the position of maestro di cappella at the famed St. Mark's cathedral in Venice. Whatever its motivation, this is a most ambitious and stylistically fascinating compendium that sets out the eight chants of the Mass Ordinary, interspersed with four motets and an instrumental piece. The 90- minute work includes soloists, chorus, and orchestra. Not until Bach would there be a religious work on this scale. Gardiner and his Monteverdi Choir adopt a decidedly "un-period" sound on this mid-'70s recording, with free vocal vibrato and a mix of modern and period instruments. This two-for-one disc set also includes motets by Monteverdi, Gabrieli, and Bassani. --David Vernier« less
One of the most grand and eloquent liturgical works ever written, Monteverdi's Vespers has enjoyed near-perpetual favor with performers and listeners since its composition in 1610. It may have been written for use as an "audition" piece for the position of maestro di cappella at the famed St. Mark's cathedral in Venice. Whatever its motivation, this is a most ambitious and stylistically fascinating compendium that sets out the eight chants of the Mass Ordinary, interspersed with four motets and an instrumental piece. The 90- minute work includes soloists, chorus, and orchestra. Not until Bach would there be a religious work on this scale. Gardiner and his Monteverdi Choir adopt a decidedly "un-period" sound on this mid-'70s recording, with free vocal vibrato and a mix of modern and period instruments. This two-for-one disc set also includes motets by Monteverdi, Gabrieli, and Bassani. --David Vernier
"I'd give it one more than my Texan friend above, but not five purely because I think that Gardiner's later version for Archiv, recorded in San Marco, Venice, knocks spots off every other version I've ever heard, and that's a lot. This is a modern instrument version, but it captures the magic of the work, a spectacular tour-de-force which bridges between the Renaissance and Baroque musical worlds. Its main glory is the choral singing which, with the blaze of Philip Jones's brass in the big numbers, is goosebump-raising. If you like your Vespers magnificent rather than devotional, this version is unmissable at this price."
Stay Away!
Ryan Kouroukis | Toronto, Ontario Canada | 01/01/2005
(2 out of 5 stars)
"This recording only conveys the "loud drama" of Monteverdi's Vespers, which it is soley not. There is not one ounce of spirituality in this recording whatsoever! Not only that but, the recording is marked with blocky chunks which are heavily noticible (as cuts)...there is no sense of fluidity or flow at all. Also, there is no libretto included.
I wouldn't recommend this set of the Vespers to anyone starting out and wanting to understand them. I would recommend Gardiner's second recording in it's stead as it is imbued with spiritual elements.
I've heard that Andrew Parrot's version is the "one" to get, though I've not heard it yet.
"
Stirring
Ryan Kouroukis | 10/08/2001
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Vespro della beata vergine, a very stirring composition, was written by Monteverdi and performed in St.Marks Cathedral, Venice in the late 16th century. Claudio Monteverdi had just crossed over into Chorale, mass and religious music to try to win over the favors of the Pope. His opera works, as stunning as they were, were not paying his bills and he had a family to support. Thus his switch to sacred music may have had political dynamics. It is important to keep in mind that this was Monteverdi's first serious full-length religious-based compositional endeavour after his opera works (such as L'Orfeo), and therefore carries with it some of the more dramatic arias and robust tenor voices inherent to opera. In this particular SV206 recording, that influence is very strong, and while it might take a bit of the subtlety out of the music, it adds an incredible amount of fortitude, vitality, and resolve. But don't be mistaken, this recording still has the subtle nuances crucial to the works. For a truly supple example of the composition, check out the version by Andrew Parrott and the Taverner Consort. It's quite impressive.
On this SV206 issue, overall the strong as well as the precious operatic voices ring through and evoke that first golden morning 500 yeras ago in St. Marks cathedral, Venice, when the great composer conducted a vast chorus and orchestra before the highest of Italian religious and secular powers, trying to prove to them that he had full mastery of sacred music. This recording evokes an era of glorious faith, but also a time when minds were surrounded by the darkness of unkown horizons and a hierarchological universe. ...Beyond the Venice quais, with their great merchant sailing vessels unloading treasures and preparing for new voyages, the horizons of the world were new and enigmatic, and as this chorus floated out from the cathedral square, the voyagers carried it in their hearts and minds as the promise of an ordered universe."
Over-wrought and pompous
Ryan Kouroukis | 01/03/1999
(1 out of 5 stars)
"This performance lacks all the subtlety required for this beautiful work. The "operatic" soloists' performances are overblown, making this performance heavy and plodding. A truly remarkable performance is the one by Andrew Parrott and the Taverner Consort."
John Eliot Gardiner May Seem Omnipresent...
Giordano Bruno | Wherever I am, I am. | 09/30/2008
(1 out of 5 stars)
"... but he's not omnipotent or infallible. And even in 1974, when this performance was recorded, he had the resources to do better. This is easily the worst, most over-conducted, most misinterpreted recording of the Vespro della Beata Vergine ever offered to the public by any conductor with "historical performance" credibility. If it were the first Gardiner I'd ever heard, I assure you I'd never give the man a second chance.
What's so bad about it? As I said, it's bizarrely over-conducted, with arbitrary and inconsequential changes of tempo and dynamic whenever John Eliot's baton twitched. The chorus is rough and bellowy. The soloists -especially the outside voices, soprano and baritone - sound as if they're singing through a kazoo at times, or as if an 'ugly filter' had been placed over their microphones. The sopranos and tenors have gross tuning problems often enough to substantiate the critics of 'early music' who say we have insufficient training... and yet these singers, some of them at least, are fairly reputable opera stars. The orchestra is murky, loud, undependable in tuning, and not even authentic in instrumentation! If a large state university, or even a medium-sized Lutheran college in upper Minnesota, staged a performance of the Vespers, I'd expect a more musical event than this.
Besides, the recording quality is dreadful. John Eliot would do his reputation a favor by pulling this canine CD off the market. Do notice, please, that Gardiner issued another performance of the Vespers, with entirely different forces, in 1990; nothing I say in this review is pertinent to that performance."