Jose Echenique wrote:mcq wrote:I've been greatly enjoying a recording of Monteverdi's Missa in Illo Tempore recently that was released on the ever-excellent Ricercar label. Performed by Odhecation and directed by Paolo da Col, this must be the finest version of this work I've heard since Philippe Herreweghe's exemplary version for Harmonia Mundi. The richness and purity of the sound this ensemble produces is startling, to my ears. The coupling of Gombert's motet, In Illo Tempore, which inspired Monteverdi's mass, is a notable one. One wonders what they might make of the 1610 Vespers. Perhaps one day. What Herreweghe imparts to his Monteverdian vision, however, is a fuller and more nuanced sense of the emotional timbres that the master wrote into this great music. Herreweghe is not as dramatically expressive a Monteverdi interpreter as Rene Jacobs or Jordi Savall but his sense of the more inward and reflective aspects of this music is unrivalled, in my view. This music becomes ever more devotional in Herreweghe's hands, a very personal discourse between one man and his God. His Monteverdi recordings have been consistently underrated, I believe, in comparison with his distinguished Bach discography, but I sincerely hope that he returns to this music.
Rather than René Jacobs or Jordi Savall, it is the Italians who have dominated Monteverdi in the last 2 decades, especially Rinaldo Alessandrini, whose Concerto Italiano can´t be beaten in sheer expressiveness and the savor of the Italian language. The Italians have rightfully reclaimed their musical heritage with a vengeance, they have almost wiped non Italians from Vivaldi and the like.
As for the Missa in Illo Tempore, I´m still very fond on the 1974 Archiv recording that came with the Vespro della Beata Vergine with the Regensburg Domspatzen and Hans Martin Schneidt conducting. I believe this still is the only recording with children voices, and the chorus was prepared by Georg Ratzinger, the former Pope´s brother.
Claudio Cavina's La Venexiana and Rinaldo Alessandrini's Concerto Italiano have certainly been the pre-eminent interpreters of Monteverdi's secular output over the last 20 years and, in particular, have significantly enriched our understanding of the madrigals (although we should not forget Anthony Rooley's work in this area with the Consort of Musicke) but, putting aside Alessandrini's magnificent interpretation of the 1610 Vespers (which, undoubtedly, is one of the great versions of this greatest of masterpieces) and Cavina's superb version of the Selva Morale e Spirituale, we have seen some very rewarding recordings of the sacred output from England ( Harry Christophers, Robert King, Paul McCreesh), Belgium (Rene Jacobs, Sigiswald Kujiken), France (Christina Pluhar), Spain (Gabriel Garrido), Germany (Konrad Junghanel) and Switzerland (Diego Fasolis).
On the question of children's voices, it is a great shame that Gustav Leonhardt and Sigiswald Kujiken in their work together for Deutsche Harmonia Mundi in the Eighties, never recorded a version of the Monteverdi Vespers. I don't believe that anybody utilised the very individual timbres of children's voices quite so successfully as these conductors did in their beautiful performances of the Bach Passions.
Herreweghe's version is one that has grown on me significantly over the last few years. Perhaps the more outwardly expressive approach of Alessandrini, Jacobs and Savall is closer to what the composer intended but the great glory of classical music is the sheer diversity of interpretative approaches that is available to the listener, each of which opens a window into the composer's inspiration. What Herreweghe achieves in his recording is a sense of liturgical devotion that is intensely private as opposed to a more public theatrical expressivity. (And I believe that Paul McCreesh had something similar in mind with his undervalued version of the 1610 Vespers.) Both approaches are perfectly valid, in my view, and aid immeasurably in the listener's appreciation of this great music. Just as I firmly believe that truth is, ultimately, subjective, and that the ideal of objective truth is an illusory pursuit, there is no one "right" way to approach a work of art. Each interpretive vision that a conductor brings to bear has intrinsic value and our subjective responses as listeners are subconsciously pre-conditioned by versions that we have favoured in the past. When I first heard Herreweghe's version of the Vespers, I was disappointed because, on one hand, I had been so very impressed by his Bach recordings, and, on the other, I was hearing Herreweghe's personal response to Monteverdi in the light of my earlier exposure to Gardiner, Jacobs and Savall in this repertoire. Over time, I realised that the "failings" that I had perceived in Herreweghe's version were my own failings as a listener and my critical judgement was being impaired by my blind adherence to other conductors' interpretations. What I learned from this experience was to approach each interpretation as a blank slate without recourse to any other version I may have in my collection and to hear the recorded performance on its own terms and to simply ask myself, "am I moved ?"
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