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Monteverdi: Maria Vespers
13.08.2010The Nederlands Kamerkoor will once again (after a long time) perform Monteverdi’s Maria Vespers. The choir was the first to perform this magnificent work in the Netherlands, on July 4th, 1951, at a concert during the Holland Festival. A year earlier – exactly 60 years ago – they performed it for Dutch Radio. And now, 400 years after the initial premiere, the Nederlands Kamerkoor will sing it again, with early music ensemble La Sfera Armoniosa led by Mike Fentross.
During Claudio Monteverdi’s lifetime, church music began to relinquish its musical monopoly to the madrigal and the opera. His own opera L’Orfeo (1607) was produced in Mantua, where Monteverdi was employed as court violinist. In 1613 he was appointed music director at San Marco in Venice, where he produced the operas Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria and L’Incoronazione di Poppea. But when it came to his sacred Maria Vespers in 1610 he turned his attentions to Rome.
Monteverdi makes his characteristic contribution to sacred music in a bold, almost operatic, style, complete with daring stereophonic and echo effects, and includes a suite of instrumental dances, concerti sections for both voices and orchestra, and a love song. In the overture, the choir rejoices above the fanfare from L’Orfeo. In ‘Dixit Dominus’ the choir’s recitative is alternated with soloists and instrumental interludes. The aria ‘Nigra sum’ is a metrically free poem with allusions to the biblical Song of Solomon. ‘Laudate pueri’ sings the praises of the Almighty in Venetian double-choir style. The duet ‘Pulchra es’ extols perfect beauty and eyes that can chase away a lover.
The glory of Jerusalem is celebrated in ‘Laetatus sum’ and a trio of tenors compete in ‘Duo seraphim’. ‘Nisi Dominus’ proposes that no city can exist without God. ‘Audi coelum’, in echo, expresses wonder at Maria’s ascension to heaven. In ‘Lauda Jerusalem’ God is praised through Jerusalem, and following the Maria hymn ‘Ave maris stella’ is orchestral music with the monophonic ‘Sancta Maria’. The closing ‘Magnificat’, Maria’s hymn to God, is the climax of the work.
[source: Robeco]
Concerts
Wed 25 August 2010, Tegelen, Openluchttheater De Doolhof
Thu 26 August 2010, Amsterdam, Concertgebouw
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