Carlo Gesualdo (1566-1613)
Anton Bruckner (1824-1896)
Motets
Monteverdi Choir/Jonathan Sells
rec. live, 20 October 2024, Chapel of St Peter & St Paul, Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich, London
Latin texts & English translations included
Soli Deo Gloria SDG736 [59] 

This new album from the Monteverdi Choir is notable on several counts, including the chosen music and the performances; I’ll get to those in a moment. The performances were recorded live in concert in 2024 as part of the choir’s celebrations of Bruckner’s bicentenary and also the sixtieth anniversary of the foundation of the Monteverdi Choir by John Eliot Gardiner, as he then was. This is, I believe, the first recording that the choir has made since they and Sir John parted company. Here, they are directed by their new conductor, Jonathan Sells. Sells is no newcomer to the Monteverdi Choir; he has sung with them as a bass for a number of years, The concert at which these performances were recorded was the third time the programme had been performed, I think; the programme, with the addition of a couple of organ pieces by Bruckner, had been given in Ely and Oxford in the days leading up to the Greenwich concert. So, what we hear on this CD is a set of well ‘run-in’ performances.

At first sight, the pairing of Bruckner with Gesualdo may seem a curious juxtaposition; it did to me when I received the disc. However, in a fascinating booklet essay Jonathan Sells makes the link through the Cecilian Movement, which grew up in Germany in the second half of the nineteenth century; in Sells’ words, the Movement “upheld the ‘pure’ style of Palestrina’s church music, along with Gregorian chant, above all others”.

I don’t believe I’ve ever heard a recording by the Monteverdi Choir in which the conductor has been anyone other than Gardiner (I have heard on radio a couple of recent performances conducted by Dinis Sousa). Consequently, I was more than intrigued to discover what the choir would sound like in other hands. It was quickly apparent that the discipline and attention to detail which were hallmarks of the Gardiner regime have not been lost. Nor has the wide range of dynamics and the biting commitment. In all those respects, these performances are right in the Monteverdi Choir performing tradition.

There are two items on the programme which are not by the principal featured composers. One is the celebrated Crucifixus by Antonio Lotti. This fits in very well and I thought that the intense performance the piece receives made Lotti’s music sit well next to Gesualdo’s idiom. The programme opens with a piece which I’ve never heard or, to be more accurate, I’ve never heard it in this form. It’s Wagner’s 1848 arrangement of Palestrina’s double-choir setting of the Stabat Mater. I infer from what Jonathan Sells says in the booklet that this version has been recorded before but this present recording is thought to be the only one in the current catalogue. Sells tells us that Wagner did his work by “adding plentiful expression markings and devising a highly sophisticated vocal ‘orchestration’”. That might suggest that Wagner suffocated Palestrina’s music but I don’t think that’s the case. To my ears, this arrangement comes across as a sincere homage which doesn’t sound anachronistic. I’m sure that the expert performance helps Wagner’s cause.

There’s another novelty, this time among the Bruckner pieces. This is the composer’s final motet, Vexilla regis “in the form which he conceived it”; and, if I interpret the notes correctly, this is the first recording of this version. Sells tells us that this version is “markedly different, most importantly in text but also in music” from previous editions. I wonder why it has taken so long for the original version to appear on disc. Anyway, it’s good that it has done – and all the more so that it first enters the catalogue in such a fine performance. With most of the other Bruckner pieces we are on much better-known ground, though I’m not sure how often there’s a chance to hear Salvum fac populum tuum. The intense, devotional Locus iste makes a deeply satisfying conclusion to the programme, while Christus factus est shows Bruckner at his finest.

Carlo Gesualdo is a highly unconventional figure and a composer whose music is sufficiently original as to defy pigeon-holing. As Jonathan Sells points out, his technique is “exemplary” in terms of counterpoint and voice-leading. However, he also draws attention to the fact that the composer often put his technique to “shocking harmonic ends”. The harmonic language, it seems to me, is where Gesualdo’s daring originality and refusal to be tied by convention really shows through. I think that a group such as the Monteverdi Choir is ideally equipped to deliver his music; the biting commitment and dynamic range which I referenced earlier enable these singers to bring Gesualdo’s music vividly to life.    

The very first Gesualdo item we hear from them illustrates their suitability for this music: Illumina faciem tuam is performed with fervour. When I listened to Ave, dulcissima Maria, I was struck by the increasing strength of the music’s calls to ‘Maria’; Sells and his singers really make that point. O vos omnes has a scriptural text which might have been conceived specifically for Gesualdo to set. He responded to the words with music of great intensity; the present performance is searingly dramatic, the urgency of both music and performance accentuated by the great dynamic contrasts.  Peccantem me quotidie builds in intensity as the music unfolds. Arguably, the most memorable Gesualdo piece and performance here is Laboravi in gemitu meo. The text, a verse from Psalm 6, is sorrowful and penitential and Gesualdo’s music fits the words like a glove. The Monteverdi Choir gives a very intense performance; the singers really own the piece.

This is a very stimulating and interesting musical programme. It’s superbly performed by the Monteverdi Choir. On this evidence, the switch to the musical leadership of Jonathan Sells has been very successfully accomplished. Sells’ understanding of the music is evidenced not just by his conducting but also by his fascinating essay about the music which is included in the booklet.

Producer Nicholas Parker and engineer Mike Hatch have recorded the programme excellently, enabling both the music and the performances to make their full impact.

John Quinn

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Contents
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, (c 1525-1594)
Stabat Mater (arr. Richard Wagner)Carlo Gesualdo (1566-1613)
Illumina faciem tuam
Anton Bruckner (1824-1896)
Christus factus est, WAB11(1884)
Carlo Gesualdo
Ave, dulcissima Maria
Anton Bruckner
Ave Maria, WAB6 (1861)
Carlo Gesualdo
O Crux benedicta
Antonio Lotti (1667-1740)
Crucifixus a 8
Carlo Gesualdo
Tribulationem et dolorem
Anton Bruckner
Os justi meditabitur, WAB30 (1897)
Carlo Gesualdo
O vos omnes
Anton Bruckner
Salvum fac populum tuum, WAB40 (1884)
Carlo Gesualdo
Peccantem me quotidie
Anton Bruckner
Vexilla regis, WAB51 (1892)
Carlo Gesualdo
Laboravi in gemitu meo
Anton Bruckner
Locus iste, WAB23 (1869)