France Itinéraire Baroque en Périgord, 2024 – Nuit à Venise: Les Maîtres de Chapelle de San Marco: Ensemble Les Surprises / Louis-Noêl Bestion de Camboulas (organ / harpsichord). Église Abbatiale Saint-Cybard de Cercles, 1.8.2024. (CC)
Giovanni Legrenzi (1625-1690) – De profundis; Adagio La Cetra; Ingemisco; Ore Supplex; Salve Regina
Tarquinio Merula (1595-1665) – Ballo detto Eccardo
Giovanni Rigatti (1613-1648) – Magnificat
Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643) – Longe mi Jesu; Troppo ben può; Pulchræ sunt genæ tuæ; Laudate dominum primo; Dixit Domunus secondo
Alessandro Grandi (1590-1630) – O quam tu pulchra es
Antonio Lotti (1667-1740) – Crucifixus
Salomone Rossi (1570-1620) – Sinfonie et Gagliarde: Sinfonia grave; Gagliarda
Francesco Cavalli (1602-1675) – Missa Concertata: Agnus Dei
Giovanni Battista Fontana (1589-1630) – Sonata XVI
The 2024 version of Itinéraire Baroque has an especial resonance: it celebrates the eightieth birthday of its founder, Ton Koopman (2017 interview right here), who has been at its head for some 23 years. 2024 introduced collectively musicians from Spain, the Netherlands, the UK, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, and Italy. The pageant ended with an unforgettable account of Bach’s St John Ardour, however the Itinéraire itself stays an actual focus.
The opening occasion on August 1 was a live performance of Venetian music based mostly across the Masters of the Chapel of San Marco, replicating many of the current Alpha launch (additionally known as Nuit à Venise) by Ensemble Les Surprises. The programme is a re-imagining of a night’s celebration within the Piazza San Marco; the music is centred round items by Monteverdi and options music of his successors on the chapel (Cavalli, Legrenzi, Lotti), plus different musicians energetic in Venice at the moment. There may be music each sacred and profane, exploring within the course of connections between the 2 within the music of that point (the Monteverdi sacred motets heard right here, Longe mi Jesu and Pulchræ sunt genæ tuæ have been initially secular motets, for instance).
The night started with music by Giovanni Legrenzi, his De profundis (‘Out of the depths I cried to Thee, O Lord’) from that composer’s Sacri e Festivi Concerti, Op.9, first printed in 1667. The antiphonal distribution of the performers was best: SATB – organ – BTAS (one feminine alto, the opposite male). The entire was shot via with life, resulting in an exceptionally vivid toned ‘Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spirito Sancto’ (‘Glory to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit’).
The distinction of instrumental and vocal was important on this live performance was an important a part of the equation. Cue Tarquinio Merulo’s Ballo detto Eccardo, the twenty third piece from Canzoni overo Sonate concertate per chiesa e digicam, 2 or 3 devices, Guide 3, Op.12 (1637). This piece is as vivid as a button, recorders (Sarah Dubus and Anaïs Ramage) as sprightly as could be, a second within the highlight with simply theorbo (Gabriel Rignol) utter delight.
A Magnificat by Giovanni Antonio Rigatti supplied big distinction: from the a-leaping and bounding Merula to the sluggish, ceremonial tread of Rigatti. Scored for voices and 7 devices, it was printed in 1640 and right here obtained a efficiency of commanding majesty. When counterpoint unfolds, it was miraculous (round ‘anima mea’, after which later, in a extra joyous outbreak, at ‘fecit potentiam’). The drooping strains at ‘Suscepit Isreal’ have been like drops of rain sliding down a window. Really memorable. The piece’s sudden adjustments in temper have been expertly tracked by Les Surprises.
From his fourth guide of sonatas, Legrenzi’s infinitely touching La Cetra, an adagio replete with beautiful suspensions. The instrumental textures have been exceptional; as they have been, reciprocally, within the choral and instrumental Longe mi Jesu (from Monteverdi’s Seventh Guide of Madrigals). To listen to them juxtaposed on this vogue in performances of such high quality was a privilege certainly.
Alessandro Grandi was each pal to Monteverdi and in addition deputised for the nice man on the Capella Marciano at San Marco (he later turned maestro di cappella at Bergamo). His motet, O quam tu pulchra es, is for 3 male voices and basso continuo, taken from the multi-composer publication Ghirlanda sacra (Venice, 1625). Sung from the again of the church and subsequently floating over the viewers, this was a second of nice intimacy. It culminated within the purest of octaves.
Instrumental items have been way over interludes: Monteverdi’s Troppo ben può was very good in its exchanges earlier than the ever-so-tender vocal Pulchræ sunt genæ tuæ. The assembly of vocal and instrumental in Monteverdi’s Laudate Dominum primo was good (some terribly imagined descents right here, realised with an actual sense of modernity by Les Surprises).
Time and time once more putting Legrenzi in amongst this firm of composers solely proved his greatness. The Ingemisco (‘I groan as one who’s responsible;) and Oro Supplex (‘I pray, kneeling in supplication’) are each from the motet Prosa professional moruis (Dies Irae) and converse of true greatness. The Ingemisco can solely be described as a kind of wonderful darkness, the excessive male strains of Oro Supplex converse of a heart-rending putting of 1’s destiny within the palms of the Christian god. The purity of the intervals in efficiency of those exceptional items contributed markedly to the efficiency’s success.
Of all items on the programme, maybe Lotti’s eight-voice Crucifixus was essentially the most well-known. Few performances although contained the facility of this, due in no small half to the ensemble’s accuracy of pitch. Lotti’s harmonies are by no means predicable, with some harmonic twists of the knife that minimize to the fast.
From Salomone Rossi’s first guide of Sinfonie et Gagliarde, first printed 1607, got here the Sinfonia grave and Gagliarda, moments of dignified repose, fantastically polished, However they might hardly put together for the fantastic interiorisations of the Agnus Dei from Cavalli’s Missa Concertata, first printed inside Musica Sacre, 1656. Antiphony labored superbly, the 2 vocal teams on both aspect of the church with the organ centre-stage.
A superbly articulated Sonata XVI by Giovanni Mattista Fontana was a beautiful however quick glimpse of magnificence previous to Legrenzi’s gorgeous Salve Regina, the repeated pleas contrasting superbly with the Dixit Dominus secondo (which really opens the Alpha disc).
An unimaginable method to formally open the 2024 Itinéraire Baroque (earlier opinions of this pageant could be discovered should you click on right here).
Colin Clarke
