Jan Baptist VERRIJT
Flammae divinae
The Consort of Music/Anthony
Rooley
NM Classics 92076 [62.40]
(PGW)
NM
Classics
Jan Baptist VERRIJT (c.1600-1650) and Sweelinck were the most
popular Dutch composers of the 17th Century. Little of Verrijt's music has
survived apart from his Op. 5, published in the late 1640s, comprising two
settings of the Mass and these 18 two- and three-part motets. They are gems,
music of the highest order, combining the older Franco-Flemish polyphony
with the Italian stile concertato , which had so swept Europe that
Northern composers of the time adopted Italian names (Couperin became an
overnight success as Francesco Coperuni!). Like Monteverdi, Verrijt heightens
the effect of this church music with operatic techniques, such as the sharp
dissonance in the poignant cries of despair in Fili, Ego Salomon.
Few musicians have explored hidden masterworks of their chosen periods so
indefatigably as lutenist and scholar Anthony Rooley, who has with
the fine singers of his much-loved The Consort of Music brought back
alive so much wonderful music hitherto relegated to library shelves. These
motets are all brief, the longest five minutes, and are displayed to fine
advantage here, the solo voice parts distributed amongst the six well known
British singers, accompanied discreetly on a small chamber organ by Steven
Devine. The style is intimate and the singers never force their tone,
so it is ideal for home listening. The project, culminating in this CD, resulted
from an invitation to The Consort of Music to study the Opus 5 of Verrijt
and perform it in Rotterdam, at what proved to be a memorable concert in
May 2000.
The recording, made in Rotterdam's de Doelen concert hall, renowned for its
sympathetic acoustics and suitability for ancient music, is exemplary and
supported by full and extremely interesting background notes. My only small
regret is that there is no track-by-track listing of the individual participants,
viz. Emma Kirkby & Evelyn Tubb (sopranos) Joseph Cornwell & Andrew
King (tenors) Lucy Ballard (alto) & Simon Grant (bass).
Peter Grahame Woolf
