Natale veneziano
Il Pomo d’Oro / Giuseppe Maletto
rec. 2024, Confraternita dei Santi Rocco e Sebastiano, Cumiana, Turin, Italy
Arcana A584 [76]
Sometimes it can be a valuable experience to step outside one’s comfort zone. For me, the Italian and German composers on this beautiful new release are a closed book. Over the years, I have heard music by Monteverdi, Schütz and Gabrielli, but I have never got into it. Time has not been taken to explore this rich heritage from the 16th and 17th century. I know that the loss is all mine, but one cannot major in everything, far less listen to all genres and periods. So, it has been a pleasure to put Bach, the Romantics, the twelve-tone brigade and the English Pastoral School to one side for a few hours.
The opening paragraph of the booklet explains that all the works on this disc could be used in the liturgies of the Christmas Festivities, and that the repertoire will encompass several of the foremost musicians active in Venice in the sixteenth and seventeenth century. It spans from Andrea Gabrieli, whose death in 1585 marked the close of the Renaissance era’s early Venetian school, to Francesco Cavalli, who died in 1676, emblematic of the city’s flourishing Baroque tradition nearly a century later.
The greater portion of this disc goes to five psalms of Claudio Monteverdi. The liner notes say that the psalms lack “explicit references to the birth of the Redeemer” but could certainly have been used in the liturgy at Christmastide. Dixit dominus, Psalm 110, would have been sung at the commencement of Vespers. It provides a “continuous alteration of ripieno (full ensemble or chorus) sections and solo parts” rather than antiphonally. Monteverdi’s dramatic setting of Psalm 111 Confitebor tibi Domine combines an expressive trio in dialogue with a five-part ripieno and continuo.
The liner notes give an apposite description of the five-voice Beatus vir,Psalm 112 (not 111 as in the booklet: 111 is the Vulgate numbering). It“proceeds like a moto perpetuo over which a series of lively motifs are interwoven”. Laudate pueri Dominum takes its text from Psalm 113. It is in five voices instructed to sing “Da Cappella”, in the style of the Chapel – in other words, unaccompanied. Psalm 117 Laudate Dominum, written for eight voices, sets two solo sopranos in dialogue with the full ensemble. It advances through a series of sharply contrasting episodes, each marked by its own discrete tempo.
The opening track is Heinrich Schütz’s Hodie Christus natus es. Although he was German, he studied in Venice with Gabrieli in 1609-1612. This splendid Christmas motet mirrors the joy and solemnity of the Nativity. The Alleluias are especially exuberant.
Giovanni Bassano’s Quem vidistis pastores? is an eight-voice motet giving an effective dialogue between the angels and the shepherds. It is part of the 1598 collection Motetti per concerti ecclesiastici. Bassano was a music teacher at the seminary of St Mark’s.
The earliest piece on the album comes from Andrea Gabrieli, onetime organist at St Mark’s Cathedral in Venice. His seven-part motet Angelus ad pastores ait is dense in sound but somehow always luminous – an ideal start to the Christmas festivities. His nephew Giovanni Gabrieli’s O Jesu mi dulcissime in eight parts is quiet, intimate and a touch melancholic.
Francesco Cavalli was a Venetian Baroque composer, singer and organist, a student of Monteverdi. He is represented by two Marian antiphons, seasonal hymns sung in honour of the Virgin Mary. Alma redemptoris is for five voices with “occasional solo” introduced into the typical madrigal structure. Salve Regina is a “madrigal” for four voices that successfully fuses the sacred and the theatrical.
The concert closes with Alessandro Grandi’s Magnificat a 8 voci, taken from the collection Salmi a otto brevi published in 1629, the year before the Italian plague hit Venice. (Grandi died in the plague.) It is an outstanding setting for double choir and continuo.
Il Pomo d’Oro Choir was founded in 2021. They debuted with Il Pomo d’Oro Orchestra (established in 2012) with Handel’s Theodora. The choir, directed by Giuseppe Maletto, brings together seasoned specialists in early Italian music. Their first solo album featured Gesualdo’s Sacrae Cantiones I, landmark 17th-century sacred motets. Forthcoming projects include Bach’s St John’s Passion and sacred works by Carissimi, Gabrieli, Monteverdi and Cavalli. They are supported on this disc by a continuo of organ, harp and violone.
The booklet in English, French and Italian gives a good introduction to the music. The Latin texts appear in translation. Resumes of Il Pomo d’Oro (The Golden Apple) and their director are included, along with a few black-and-white photographs. The font is small, and I was unable to find an online file.
My only niggle is that this beautiful music was recorded in Turin, and wonderful city it is, rather than in La Serenissima. But I am being unreasonable…
I was impressed with the purity of the singing, the clarity of the diction, and the deep sense of religious conviction which the texts imply – all this enhanced by an ideal recording.
Christmas polyphony in the Venice of Monteverdi indeed! This beautifully performed programme has opened a window onto a rich world unfamiliar to me. I am grateful to have glimpsed it. Il Pomo d’Oro’s precision make a compelling case for this radiant Christmas repertoire.
John France
Buying this recording via the link below generates revenue for MWI, which helps the site remain free
Contents
Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672)
Hodie Christus natus est, SWV456(c.1610)
Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643)
Dixit Dominus I, SV191 (1650)
Andrea Gabrieli (1532/1533-1585)
Angelus ad pastores ait (1587)
Claudio Monteverdi
Confitebor tibi Domine I, SV265 (1640)
Giovanni Bassano (ca.1560-1617)
Quem vidistis pastores? (1598)
Claudio Monteverdi
Beatus vir II, SV269 (1640)
Giovanni Gabrieli (c.1554/1557-1612)
O Jesu mi dulcissime (1615)
Claudio Monteverdi
Laudate pueri Dominum, SV196 (1640)
Francesco Cavalli (1602-1676)
Alma redemptoris mater (1656)
Claudio Monteverdi
Laudate Dominum III, SV274 (1640)
Francesco Cavalli
Salve Regina (1656)
Alessandro Grandi (1590-1630)
Magnificat a 8 voci (1629)
