Early Sacred Italian Baroque Composers II: Born 1590-1640

 

 

From Early Music Review: During his lifetime, the Venetian Alessandro Grandi was regarded as the equal of Monteverdi and his influence on the motet was profound. The works recorded here illustrate the dramatic concertato style in which he composed and indicate an original creative genius at work. Blending voices and continuo with cornetti and sackbuts, these performances illustrate how he animates the texts he is setting with rapidly changing bursts of expressive musical ideas, but is also capable of more sustained expressions of passion. The singing and playing here is generally suitably passionate too, with very effective detailed ornamentation subtly applied where appropriate. I have some reservations about the soprano voices which both have more vibrato than is comfortable. Annoyingly they seem able to minimise this at will, but too often they don’t, leaving them sounding unsettlingly wobbly compared to the cornetti and, indeed, the gentlemen. The 15 motets recorded here range from simple two-voice dialogues to larger-scale pieces culminating in a handsome eight-part setting of Nisi Dominus. The recorded sound is best in the smaller-scale works and is a bit crowded in the larger pieces, where surely more use could have been made of the acoustic in the Basilica Palatina di Santa Barbara in Mantua. This CD with Alessandra Rossi Lürig’s detailed and informative programme notes makes a strong case for exploring further Grandi’s sacred music, which has survived in large quantities but of which only a small portion has made it into modern editions. 

 

1	O Quam Tu Pulchra Es	3:21
2	Plorabo	6:21
3	Lilia	2:27
4	In Semita	2:49
5	O Bone Jesu	3:03
6	Date Nomini Ejus	5:14
7	Heu Mihi	4:48
8	Salvum Fac	3:49
9	Bone Jesu Verbum Patris	5:31
10	Domine Ne In Furore Tuo	3:56
11	Surge Propera	3:45
12	Factum Est Silentium	3:16
13	Vidi Spetiosam	3:07
14	Veniat Dilectus Meus	4:26
15	Nisi Dominus	6:46

III. Giovanni Paolo Colonna: Psalmi ad Vesperas (1694).  (Houston Chamber Choir & Orch./Robert Simpson). MSR CD MS 1437.

 

Experience the splendor of late 17th-century sacred music in northern Italy. Giovanni Paolo Colonna's monumental Vespers were composed in 1694 for a grand festival at the Basilica of St. Petronio in Bologna. This dramatic piece was hidden away for centuries in the archives of Westminster Abbey and the Central Library of Zürich, and has only recently come to light. The Houston Chamber Choir's performance of the work in the fall of 2011 was the first in modern times.

Houston Chamber Choir gratefully acknowledges the Web Library of Seventeenth-Century Music, Alexander Silbiger, General Editor, for the modern edition of Colonna's Psalmi ad Vesperas, edited by Pyrros Bamichas. www.sscm-wlscm.org

The Latin texts are taken from the Liber usualis (edited by the Benedictines of Solesmes, Tournai, 1953); translations are taken from the Saint Andrew Daily Missal (edited by Dom Gaspar Lefebvre, O.S.B., of the Abbey of St.-André, Bruges, 1954). Both are provided in the modern edition by Pyrros Bamichas.

From Fanfare: 

1 Deus in adjutorium meum intende [Versicle - Gregorian Chant]

   Domine ad adjuvandum me festina [Responsory]

2  Dixit Dominus [Psalm 109]

3  Confitebor tibi Domine [Psalm 110]

4  Beatus vir [Psalm 111]

5  Laudate Dominum omnes gentes [Psalm 116]

6  Nisi Dominus [Psalm 126]

7  Magnificat anima mea Dominum [Canticle of tRhe Blessed Virgin, Luke 1:46-55]