O Jesu Mi Dulcissime
Heinrich SCHÜTZ (1585-1672)
Wie lieblich sind deine Wohungen a 8 (SWV 29) [7:05]
Giovanni GABRIELI (c1554/57-1612)
O magnum mysterium a 8 (C 3) [3:56]
Canzon II à 6 (C 196) [4:20]
Claudio MONTEVERDI (1567-1643)
Cantate Domino a 6 (SV 293) [1:59]
Heinrich SCHÜTZ
Alleluia! Lobet den Herren a 8 (SWV 38) [9:13]
Nicolò CORRADINI (?-1646)
Prospera lux venit* [5:14]
Giovanni GABRIELI
Omnes gentes plaudite manibus a 16 (C 52) [3:47]
Nicolò CORRADINI
O Jesu mi dulcissime** [4:39]
Andrea GABRIELI (1532/33-1585)
O sacrum convivium a 5 [4:29]
Heinrich SCHÜTZ
Selig sind die Toten a 6 (SWV 391) [3:47]
Claudio MONTEVERDI
Beatus vir a 6 (SV 268) [9:31]
Giovanni GABRIELI
O Jesu mi dulcissime a 8 [4:37]
Jo Golden**, Cat Paterson* (soprano), Camilla Fawkner** (contralto),
Joseph Denby** (tenor), Tim Reader** (bass)
Coro, Camerata Antica/Mark Griffiths
rec. 29-30 October 2011, St Mary-At-Hill, Monument, London, UK. DDD
DAL SEGNO DSPRCD602 [62:37]
The core of this disc is the repertoire for double choir, which is
is inextricably bound up with Venice. It was Adrian Willaert who laid the
foundations of the technique of writing for cori spezzati, which was
then further developed by Andrea Gabrieli and his nephew Giovanni. Before
Willaert music for two choirs was already written in other cities, and the
very idea of juxtaposing two 'choirs' is much older. It goes back to the
early stages of liturgical music, when the verses of a Psalm were sung in
turn by two groups of singers. Whereas Willaert composed music for two
groups of the same line-up - SATB - the Gabrieli's wrote also pieces for two
choirs of different scoring, for instance a 'high' versus a 'low' choir. The
collaboration of instruments was usually not indicated in the scores, but it
was common practice to use in particular cornetts and sackbuts to either
replace or support some or even all of the voices.
The cori spezzati technique quickly disseminated across
Europe, and was enthusiastically embraced by, for instance, Michael
Praetorius in Germany, and also someone like Mikolaj Zielenski in Poland.
The main composer in 17th-century Germany was Heinrich Schütz, and he
had experienced the polychoral style himself while studying in Venice with
Giovanni Gabrieli. He frequently used this technique in his own oeuvre, for
instance in the Psalmen Davids of 1619. In the early decades of the
century new elements of the Italian style were incorporated, such as the
writing of independent instrumental parts and the more individual treatment
of the human voice. This was called the concertato style, which again
was quickly adopted elsewhere, especially in Germany. And again it was
Heinrich Schütz who played a key role in incorporating this new style
into the German contrapuntal tradition.
This disc offers examples of both styles. The pieces by the
Gabrieli's and the two first works by Schütz, both from his Psalmen
Davids, are polychoral. In the compositions by Corradini we have
specimens of the concertato style. The latter is the unknown quantity
on this disc. He was born and died in Cremona, where he worked as an
organist and succeeded Tarquinio Merula as maestro di cappella of the
Cappella delli Laudi. The two pieces on this disc are from a collection of
sacred concertos in the concertato style. Prospera lux venit
is for solo voice, two violins and basso continuo. The two violin parts are
played here by cornetts, and that doesn't turn out to be a good decision.
The lower notes of the soloist, the soprano Cat Paterson, are overpowered by
the cornetts. Ms Paterson has a nice voice, but the performance is rather
bland, with little dynamic shading and a complete lack of ornamentation.
O Jesu mi dulcissime is for four voices and bc with passages for
pairs of voices. The liner-notes state that particular lines are emphasized
"with the return of the full choir". However, it is very unlikely that the
tutti episodes were ever sung by a 'choir'. In the booklet of the Gabrieli
Consort and Players' recording A New Venetian Coronation 1595 Paul McCreesh
states that "[Over] the years I have come to believe that one to a part
singing was very common in major cathedrals (...)". In this recording we
hear a choir with 29 singers which is largely responsible for this disc
being generally unsatisfying.
Unfortunately things go wrong from the word go. In Schütz's
Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen very little of the text is
understandable. It isn't very helpful that the booklet includes only English
translations of the lyrics, but omits the original texts. The size of the
choir causes a lack of transparency. The articulation is not good enough and
dynamic shading is largely absent. The declamatory passages in the second
half don't come off very well. The pieces by Giovanni Gabrieli, with their
more linear texture, are receiving more convincing interpretations, but even
here the size of the ensemble takes its toll. Omnes gentes plaudite
manibus is for 16 voices in four choirs. Performing it with 16 singers
and probably additional instruments is problematic enough as it is, a
performance with an even larger ensemble makes it hard to discern the
various lines, let alone understand any of the text.
Even more disappointing are the pieces which include elements of the
concertato style and traditional polyphony. Selig sind die
Toten is not too bad, but most of the peculiarities Schütz uses to
express the text are not conveyed that well in a choral performance. Even
less satisfying is Monteverdi's Beatus vir, one of his most popular
pieces. The tempo is too slow, and the various passaggi can hardly be
realized with a choir. In this piece Monteverdi often juxtaposes two pairs
of voices, mostly soprano I and II versus tenor I and II, and these include
many figurations which strongly suggest a performance with solo voices
rather than a choir. The instrumental scoring is also questionable:
Monteverdi has set the two upper parts for violins, and added three ad
libitum parts for either viole da braccio or sackbuts. The very
fact that he didn't offer an alternative for the upper voices seems
deliberate. The balance between instruments and voices is less than ideal in
this performance.
There is no doubt about the qualities of this choir, but it wasn't a
particular good idea to choose repertoire which was not intended for
performances with this number of singers. The Camerata Antica plays very
well, and can be heard independently in a nice performance of Andrea
Gabrieli's motet O sacrum convivium. On balance, however, this disc
fails to convey the full glory of the chosen repertoire.
Johan van Veen
http://www.musica-dei-donum.org
https://twitter.com/johanvanveen
This disc fails to convey the full glory of the chosen repertoire.