– Composer: Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi (15 May 1567 — 29 November 1643)
– Ensemble: English Baroque Soloists
– Choirs: Monteverdi Choir / London Oratory Junior Choir
– Conductor: John Eliot Gardiner
– Soloists: Michael Chance (Countertenor), Bryn Terfel (Bass), Alastair Miles (Bass), Ann Monoyios (Soprano), Sandro Naglia (Tenor), Nigel Robson (Tenor), Mark Tucker (Tenor)
– Year of recording: 1989 (Basilica di San Marco, Venice)
Vespro della Beata Vergine 1610 (Vespers for the Blessed Virgin, 1610; SV 206 and 206a) — commonly called Vespers of 1610.
00:00:00 – I. DEUS IN ADIUTORIUM – psalm 69, 1–2 Sex vocibus et sex instrumenti
00:02:19 – II. DIXIT DOMINUS – psalm 109 Motetto ad una voce
00:09:35 – III. NIGRA SUM (Canticle) Octo vocibus
00:13:23 – IV. LAUDATE PUERI – psalm 112 A due voci
00:19:05 – V. PULCHRA ES (Canticle) Motetto à 6
00:23:03 – VI. LAETATUS SUM – psalm 121 A due voci
00:29:38 – VII. DUO SERAPHIM A dieci voci
00:36:23 – VIII. NISI DOMINUS – psalm 126 Prima ad una voce sola poi nella fine à 6
00:41:02 – IX. AUDI COELUM Prima ad una voce sola poi nella fine à 6
00:49:41 – X. LAUDA JERUSALEM – psalm 147 Motetto à 7 voci
00:53:30 – XI. SONATA à 8 Sopra Sancta Maria ora pro nobis
01:00:27 – XII. AVE MARIS STELLA Hymnus à 8
————– XIII. MAGNIFICAT Septem vocibus et sex instrumentis
01:09:34 — 01. Magnificat
01:10:23 — 02. Et Exultavit
01:11:41 — 03. Quia Respexit
01:13:17 — 04. Quia Fecit
01:14:16 — 05. Et Misericordia
01:16:17 — 06. Fecit Potentiam
01:17:14 — 07. Deposuit
01:19:27 — 08. Esurientes
01:20:42 — 09. Suscepit Israel
01:21:56 — 10. Sicut Locutus Est
01:22:50 — 11. Gloria Patri
01:25:29 — 12. Sicut Erat in Principio
01:26:39 — 13. Amen
The term “Vespers” (evening prayers) is taken from the Hours of the Divine Office, a set of daily prayers of the Catholic Church which have remained structurally unchanged for 1500 years. In scale, Monteverdi’s Vespers was the most ambitious work of religious music before Bach. The piece includes soloists, chorus, and orchestra and has both liturgical and extra-liturgical elements. It is composed around several Biblical texts that are traditionally used as part of the liturgy for several Marian feasts in the Roman Catholic church: the introductory Deus in adjutorium (Psalm 69), five Psalm settings, sacred motets (called “concerti”) between the Psalms, a traditional Hymn, a setting of the Magnificat text and the concluding Benedicamus Domino.
The Vespers was first printed in Venice in 1610 when the composer was working at the ducal court in Mantua. Historical record does not indicate whether Monteverdi actually performed the Vespers in either city; the work may have been written as an audition piece for posts at Rome (where the composer was not offered a post, even though he dedicated it to Pope Paul V), and Venice, where Monteverdi subsequently became maestro di cappella at St Mark’s Basilica in Venice in 1613.
The Vespers is monumental in scale, and requires a choir large enough and skillful enough to cover up to 10 vocal parts in some movements and split into separate choirs in others while accompanying seven different soloists during the course of the piece. Interestingly, solo parts are included for violin and cornett, but the ripieno instrumentation is not specified by Monteverdi. Additionally, he did not specify a set of plainchant antiphons to insert before each psalm and the concluding Magnificat. This allows the performers to tailor the music according to the available instrumental forces and the occasion of the performance (the particular feast day’s liturgy would have included suggested antiphons that could be chanted before Monteverdi’s psalm settings). Another example of tailoring to the forces available is the fact that the collection includes two versions of the Magnificat, one of which is scored for a smaller group of musicians than the other. Gardiner recorded both the 6-part and 7-part Magnificat in 1989, I choose the latter here because it has the most impact, and corresponds with Gardiner’s ‘triumphant’ interpretation of the Vespers.
Monteverdi’s unique approach to each movement of the Vespers earned the work a place in history. The work not only presents intimate, prayerful moments within its monumental scale, but it also incorporates secular music in this decidedly religious performance and its individual movements present an array of musical forms – sonata, motet, hymn, and psalm – without losing focus. The Vespers achieves overall unity by building each movement on the traditional Gregorian plainchant for each text, which becomes a cantus firmus in Monteverdi’s setting.