Magnificent Monteverdi
Garth Wilshere
Musica Sacra – Monteverdi Vespers, conducted by Robert Oliver, St Mary of The Angels, reviewed by Garth Wilshere
TO hear Monteverdi’s Vespers, almost exactly 400 years after it was written (in 1610), was a life-affirming event.
This was director Robert Oliver’s swansong for Musica Sacra.
With his informed musicianship, research and scholarship he brought an instrumental ensemble of period instruments: six baroque strings, three cornetti (forerunners to trumpets), three sackbuts (early forerunners to trombones), recorders, two pipe organs, a virginal, two theorbo (bass lutes) and 10 voices from Baroque Voices together to create real excitement.
The sound of the instruments was exhilarating, and the singers in full voice were thrilling.
Assembling these forces from here and abroad was quite an undertaking and it was so pleasing to see supportive audiences each night for the unique experience.
In the ideal acoustic of St Mary of the Angels the sound was often magical.
The St Mary’s Choir and cantors were in the balcony behind the audience and chanted the Antiphons before and after the psalms, motets, hymns and the astonishing final Magnificat.
The singers were not all of consistent quality and all was not perfect, but there were many moments of perfection such as in the delicious pianissimos of sopranos Pepe Becker and Jane Tankersley. And earlier a lovely Sonato Sopra Sancta Maria from the three choir sopranos.
The spatial effect achieved in the Motet Audi Coelum a tenor solo with echo and five-part chorus was terrific.
Throughout the effectiveness of the acoustic made you marvel at the excellence of design and architecture of the church. A magnificent achievement.
TO hear Monteverdi’s Vespers, almost exactly 400 years after it was written (in 1610), was a life-affirming event.
This was director Robert Oliver’s swansong for Musica Sacra.
With his informed musicianship, research and scholarship he brought an instrumental ensemble of period instruments: six baroque strings, three cornetti (forerunners to trumpets), three sackbuts (early forerunners to trombones), recorders, two pipe organs, a virginal, two theorbo (bass lutes) and 10 voices from Baroque Voices together to create real excitement.
The sound of the instruments was exhilarating, and the singers in full voice were thrilling.
Assembling these forces from here and abroad was quite an undertaking and it was so pleasing to see supportive audiences each night for the unique experience.
In the ideal acoustic of St Mary of the Angels the sound was often magical.
The St Mary’s Choir and cantors were in the balcony behind the audience and chanted the Antiphons before and after the psalms, motets, hymns and the astonishing final Magnificat.
The singers were not all of consistent quality and all was not perfect, but there were many moments of perfection such as in the delicious pianissimos of sopranos Pepe Becker and Jane Tankersley. And earlier a lovely Sonato Sopra Sancta Maria from the three choir sopranos.
The spatial effect achieved in the Motet Audi Coelum a tenor solo with echo and five-part chorus was terrific.
Throughout the effectiveness of the acoustic made you marvel at the excellence of design and architecture of the church. A magnificent achievement.
Have Your Say
0 Comments
No comments.