Leave it to the Italians to teach us about beauty. Concerto Italiano’s performance of Monteverdi’s Vespers for the Blessed Virgin was all
about effortlessly flowing beautiful singing. The ensemble specialises in early
Baroque repertoire and under conductor Rinaldo Alessandrini they demonstrated the
flexible expressiveness and controlled refinement of Italian cantabile at its
most sublime.
Monteverdi’s complex writing required the ten-part choir to
sing sometimes as three separate choirs and also as soloists where the Concerto
Italiano singers delighted in the freedom of ornamenting their solo line. The choir
blended warmly with the organ and penetrated through the instrumental
accompaniment with a focussed brightness where required.
The period instruments included a continuo of organ and two
theorbos (lutes with a long neck extension) with the addition in some movements
of strings and brass including three trombones and double bass. The resulting
weighty bass sound highlighted Monteverdi’s groundbreaking technique pioneering
a basso continuo in vocal music.
Monteverdi’s other great achievement as a composer was to
reintroduce the importance of the text in vocal writing. Unfortunately the
program for this concert didn’t include the text of the Vespers (in Latin or
English) so Monteverdi’s efforts at matching poetry to music were difficult to
appreciate.
So the focus returned to the singers and fortunately they
were exquisite. The duetting sopranos in the Motet Pulcha es decorated each note
with delicate tonal colours and lightly-spun ornaments. Three male vocalists
gave an achingly beautiful performance of the Motet Duo Seraphim delivering the trillo (aptly nicknamed the “goat’s trill”) ornament with a smoothness and
lightness I’d never thought possible. Monteverdi’s call and response technique in
the Magnificat was emphasised by performers turning their backs or singing their responses off stage – another aspect of
Alessandrini’s attention to sound quality that made Concerto Italiano’s performance one of
the best you’ll hear.
This review copyright The West Australian 2016.
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