Search - Cavalli, Dickey, Toet :: Vespro Della Beata Vergine

OVPP? Purrrlease!

Steven Guy | Croydon, South Australia | 03/17/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This otherwise fantastic CD is marred by the adherence to the misguided One Voice Per Part principal. Monteverdi conducted a choir of 36 voices in Venice, Viadana recommended at least 30 singers for his choir and Gabrieli regularly used 20 to 35 singers in his ensemble.
Cavalli's Vesperae require a larger number of voices - the parts say 'solo' and 'tutti'. So why does doesn't this recording do that? One can only wonder! Music was published in 16th century Italy in a convenient way but we know that larger forces were used when it was performed.The playing and singing on this disc is excellent and the instrumental works are particularly good. However, I have only awarded this CD four stars - it lost a star for its illogical use of OVPP. 16th Century Italian sacred music was not a OVPP wonderland! Far from it!"