An Ancient Masterpiece
Monteverdi’s Vespers dates from 1610, in a very early stage in the great lineage of classical music. This was before the rules of tonal harmony and counterpoint were firmly established. Before Bach, before Vivaldi, before Purcell. Monteverdi’s peculiar treatment of music feels other-worldly—like an alternate reality of modal harmony that was subsumed by the direct power of tonal harmony. In modal harmony, the pull and push of leading tones and tonics are not as strongly corercive (to my tonal-harmony-conditioned ears, at least). Modal harmony creates a hazy peaceful effect. Some 20th-century composers tried to reclaim this mellow modality after the possibilities of tonal harmony were exhausted. But no one achieves Monteverdi’s natural “recently-discovered” amazed aura.
In local early music group Magnificat’s performance of the Vespers, artistic director Warren Stewart guided Monteverdi’s slowly moving harmonies with an idyllic tenderness. The roughly 1-hour performance moved like the unhurried progression of the sun, shining its radiant life-giving warmth as it progressed
In Vespers, verses are read in unison traditional thousands-of-years-old plainchant by the men. And then as if by some minor miracle, the single stem of a melody blossoms gently outwards into imitative polyphony. Florid patterns echo amongst the voices, seamlessly steering from solemn religious contours to bouncy madrigals with a more secular feel. After extensive explorations through odd harmonies (sonorities that didn’t quite catch on in history’s selection so far) the voices coalesce into grand Amens.
Though Monteverdi mixes a wide variety of Medieval, Renaissance, and early Baroque styles, the juxtaposition somehow meshed—this unification of feeling is a credit to Stewart’s direction..jpg)
Specialty Musicians
The classical music world is segmenting into increasingly specialized ensembles. The San Francisco Symphony seems to like in late 19th-century fare. Groups such as Earplay and SFCMP are experts in contemporary music. Even “Early Music” might be too broad a title; Philharmonia Baroque concentrates on 17th and 18th century music, while Magnificat concentrates on the early Baroque, rescuing music of the 16th from quiet obscurity..jpg)
Pulling off the Vespers requires just that specialized expertise. It takes a obsessed kind of commitment to dedicate one’s life to instruments that are almost obsolete: the extremely difficult to control valve-less trombone (essentially very long metal pipes), the odd -looking “cornettos”, beautiful old viols and old violins fitted with gut strings and Baroque bows. 
One instrument that was truly fascinating both visually and aurally was the Theorbo, played by David Tayler. It is essentially a large lute with an elongated neck and extra low bass strings. United with the organ playing of Katherine Heather, the continuo section added to the beautiful halo of the evening. Rather than harpsichord’s bright clang, the theorbo provided slightly darker yet still cutting articulation while the organ provided for sustained tones—a winning combination.
The wind players are members of “The Whole Noyse” ensemble—they raised a joyous noise indeed, made even more jubilant by Monteverdi’s reservation of the whole orchestra for a precious few moments.
As for the Vocalists, clear enunciation and rich blend carried the evening. Stewart elicited exciting crescendi out of choir on choice words, especially the Amens and the word “Magnificat” to open the “Canticum Beata Mariea Virginis.” (No coincidence there, I suspect!)
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p and coming tenor Brian Thorsett stepped in for Mirko Guadagnini, in a powerful and lyrical performance. For a couple of responsorial antiphons he sneaked to the back of the hall for a spacial echo effect—a fun stunt but distracting and oddly out of context when not part of an actual service. St. Patrick’s Seminary in Menlo Park was a gorgeous and fitting venue for this event. It has an ideal balance of dry vs. wet reverberation, but is probably not quite resonant enough for the echo effect attempted. Monteverdi probably intended the echoy stone cathedrals of Italy.
As long as I’m on a critical streak, I was bothered by the execution of some of the ornamental patterns. I’m not expert in early Baroque ornamentation (I only qualify this because I know some have dedicated years of study to this obscure subject) but some of the embellishments, whether improvised or written out sounded forced and even mechanical. Too many classical musicians are fixated on the printed page. Musicians—vocalists and instrumentalists alike—must learn to embellish more freely.
Ornamental gaffes aside, the performance was a gratifying and unique one—a rare event that all in attendance were lucky to experience.
Comments
Nice job with the review! I don't completely agree with your last comment about the ornamentation feeling "forced" and "mechanical." During the performance I was actually thinking the opposite... I thought it was so free and beautiful. VERY elaborate (and soupy at times), but beautiful. That could have been bc I was listening to it NOT from an academic perspective; I don't know the fine differences btwn classical ornamentation, baroque, etc. I love how in live baroque music, the performer is more the composer
Hi Beeri; Interesting article and well-written. I have a few comments:
Sackbuts are early trombones and have slides similar to the modern ones. They are not as difficult to play as the cornettos, which are wooden wind instruments with fingerholes like recorders, but mouthpieces like trumpets. They are extremely difficult to control because of their use of the overtone series. The cornetto was known in the 17th century as the instrument closest to the human voice. I felt Steve and his partner did a very good job, especially in the Deposuit part of the Magnificat, which is one of the most difficult pieces featuring the cornetto.
I felt that most of the ornamentation was very successful, although I do agree that the cornettists resort to formulaic ornaments, which can be a problem sometimes. But with the singers and strings I thought the ornaments worked perfectly.
Much of it is in the music, but some, such as the trillos (repeated notes near cadences) added much to the music and were very stylish.
As for echoes, they were used by many composers in this period. The only other way the group could have performed them would have been to put the echo "offstage" so we couldn't see the singer, but it might not have been practicable in this church. The idea of antiphonal singing and playing was very much explored during the 17th century and even into the following century. Experimentation with sound and direction was the musical equivalent of shadowing in art pioneered by Caravaggio. You probably know that San Marco in Venice has 4 balconies for musicians to play and sing antiphonally. This was Gabrieli's church, and it inspired generations of composers afterwards.
One other comment: The Vespers text is standard for evening services in the Catholic church, and the Magnificat text is part of the Vespers service. The music for Vespers
consists largely of Psalm settings, which is why so many of them end with the Gloria Patri, the standard closing text for psalms.
Hope you don't mind my comments. Keep writing: your'e good at it.
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