BAL Monteverdi Vespers of 1610

[ardcarp]

Firstly, if you order direct, NCO is very efficient in mailing its CDs. Secondly, I think NCO Vespers are brilliant, and I don't find the playing remotely creaky, whatever that means. The Sonata sopra Sancta Maria is stunning...what a wonderful searing sound. Often one has to make allowances for boy soloists (you do in their St John, I think) but definitely not here. I'll be interested to hear if BAL shares my opinion. I agree with verismissimo's comments about Anthony Lewis's pioneering work, though more so in slightly later Baroque opera than with Monteverdi. What constitutes the corpus of the 1610 Vespers has changed over the years, and Denis Stevens' original edition (again pioneering) was sadly short in that respect.

[MickyD]

ardcarp, if you re-read my message, you will see that I was actually applying "creaky" to the instrumental playing of the 1970s Regensburg version, not the new NCO version. Maybe it's not the best of adjectives, but listen to the string playing and you get some idea of how things have changed for the better (IMO) over the years. I fully intend getting hold of the NCO version very soon, what I have heard sounds wonderful, as you say.

[Nick Armstrong]

I don't want to miss this. I'll be driving down to East Sussex with Frau Alpensinfonie, so I'll volunteer to be at the wheel.

Take bloody good care, Alps!! God knows what the weather's doing between North Yorks and East Sussex this morning!!!

Maybe you've deceided to hear this from home after all....

[Nick Armstrong]

I haven't listened to it yet, but yesterday's edition of France Musique's La Tribune des critiques de disques was also on Monteverdi's Vespers, so it will be interesting to compare programmes (although with the caveat that La Tribune doesn't set out to find a 'best' version of all available recordings; it's more an Interpretations on Record).

IGI I'm part way through that on the iPod - down to the final four... Going to be a day of Vespers comparisons, I think. Oddly enough, though, this isn't a piece I yearn to have on record (I had the big JEG one, I've a feeling I got rid of it) - whereas live performances can be overwhelming. I remember one in King's Chapel in the 80s - they had the big West door open as the sun set (it was during May Week) so the rays slanted along the Chapel and then it got dark... Unforgettable.

[Don Petter]

I don't want to miss this. I'll be driving down to East Sussex with Frau Alpensinfonie, so I'll volunteer to be at the wheel. (Whoever is driving chooses the radio channel.) :)

A white and rather icy East Sussex awaits you as I listen to BaL with the fire already lit for the day! I hope your journey is not too bad.

Your driving rule sounds excellent. Do you have to give Frau A any rights in exchange? Control of window on her side, choice of hat, surely not choice of route? I might try to negotiate something similar. We only have one rule at the moment - Mrs P is always right.

[Bryn]

I tuned in a bit late. Which was the 'one voice per part' recording that was preferred? Was it the Stubbs?

[DracoM]

Well, probably the one to a part version went to Tragicomedia / Stubbs. SH went with King again as top choice, and was clearly budget favourite in that the set contains both Magnificats and the early Mass. Recent NCO / Higginbottom welcomed and strongly praised, Parrott also much praised, JEG was very nearly termed 'a circus' but SH couldn't bring himself quite to say it aloud!

I thought it a balanced, careful, attentive BAL.

[BBMmk2]

What version was chosen?

Don Petter, that sounds about right!! The wife is always right, even when she is wrong!! :) EA, hope you have a safe journey!! My neck of the woods is near Brighton & Hove!!

[doversoul1]

I thought it was a very enjoyable and enlightening BAL. Simon Heighes pointed out what to listen for in different versions very expressively. It may have sounded patronising to those who were expert in the matter but it suited me well.

BBM
It was Robert King’s.

[BBMmk2]

Really? I am glad about that. Thank you Doversoul.

[vinteuil]

Well, probably the one to a part version went to Tragicomedia / Stubbs. SH went with King again as top choice, and was clearly budget favourite in that the set contains both Magnificats and the early Mass. Recent NCO / Higginbottom welcomed and strongly praised, Parrott also much praised, JEG was very nearly termed 'a circus' but SH couldn't bring himself quite to say it aloud!

I thought it a balanced, careful, attentive BAL.

I agree with DracoM - balanced, careful, attentive. Of those I didn't already know, the Stubbs/ Tragicomoedia one stood out as the most interesting, and I have swiftly ordered one as a post-Christmas present to self... The Robert King which he chose as his final one was, to my ears, a little too correct, and James Gilchrist, tho' beautiful as a singer, I felt just sounded too English in intonation. I see that there are currently available some four or so vols in the hyperion Robt King Monteverdi Sacred Music edition - I hope we might expect in the fullness of time that Hyperion might produce one of their boxes containing it all? - that wd certainly tempt me. Does anyone happen to know of what progres towards completion there is on this Robert King set?

DracoM noted that the reviewer was being diplomatic in what he didn't say about the John Eliot Gardiner. I thought his careful choice of words was a hoot - certainly the JEG extracts he played sounded really Hollywood-esque after the sobriety of some the other performers...

[ardcarp]

Where to start.......

Well, firstly, Simon Heighes has en engaging presenting style with pleasant touches of humour, e.g. 'Nigra Sum means I am black and comely but not necessarily always in tune' [bit cruel!] But I must disagree with his spending so long on OVPP performances. There is an academic argument for it in Bach's case (which I don't entirely support, btw) based on Bach's complaints about lack of resources. But we are not talking about a strapped-for-cash Lutheran parish church here. We are talking of either Rome (where Monteverdi send the Vespers as a sort of C.V.) or Venice which was not only the richest city state in Europe but also given to flaunting its opulence. The contrast between big choir, small choir, soloists and instruments was SURELY what the whole thing was about. OVPP is more a device which allows admittedly excellent 21st century groups to gad about the world on a budget!

As a consequence, the BAL slot did not manage to slot in enough of NCO, King's Consort (or for that matter Jiggers) in full flood for listeners to make any sort of judgement other than handed out by the presenter. Simon Heighes made a rather discouraging remark about Nicholas Mulroy's voice, but failed to mention the amazing Tom Hobbs, who opens the disc and is the other 'main' tenor. He is surely a young talent to look out for.

I can understand Simon Heighes' plumping, once again, for his original choice, and I agree Robert King's version is excellent in many ways. Jiggers gets a blasting for being 'theatrical' especially in the DVD version, but, hey Mr Heighes, isn't that what San Marco was all about?

May I just give a few reasons for buying the NCO disc on their own label, Novum?

-It is a new and fresh sound, quite unlike any other Vespers recording.
-It has a continental sound (how I disagree with Heighes here, who describes it as 'Anglican'! A less 'Anglican' Anglican choir it would be hard to find).
-The instrumental playing is second to none (sorry Micky D, I mis-read your earlier post). Even Heighes admits he's never heard better cornetti.
-If you must be HIP, you can't get hipper than this!
-The Vespers are a random collection of pieces, but as decided upon and presented by Higginbottom they seem to 'work' just perfectly in their tempi, their contrasts and textures.
-The recording quality is brilliant. (Balance IMO better than Robert King's, where sometimes the choral passages are a bit dominated by instruments.)

I am quite un-biased, of course!

[Ferretfancy]

I know that this is a bit of a hobby horse of mine, so forgive me, but why are contributors to BAL so poorly recorded ? Today's music examples sounded fine, but Simon Heighes sounded as he had a blanket over the microphone, and the level of his comments varied throughout the programme. It was certainly nicely done and obviously well informed, but as so often on BAL the voice quality was poor. I was listening in my living room on wide range equipment, and the source was a hard disc taken from the earlier transmission on Freeview.
I would be interested to know how this section of CD Review is put together. Are we hearing a studio recording of the presenter, or is he or she recorded elsewhere, possibly in a domestic environment, and the music compiled later? It's always a dramatic improvement in speech quality when Andrew returns.
I don't believe that this is a trivial matter. The technical quality should be of the best, regardless of where and how it is integrated into the programme.

[Bryn]

Re. the NCO/Higginbottom discs, given that hmv.com are offering for (just) less than a tenner, including p&p, I'll give the direct route am miss, thanks.

[MickyD]

Hmm, ardcarp, your enthusiasm for the NCO set is so persuasive, I think I'm going to order it right away! I'm sure the choir is too busy to contemplate such a project, but I would love Higginbottom to do a Bach cantata cycle with all male voices.

Meantime, all this talk of Venice is very appropriate, as I am currently working my way through Robert King's 11 disc set of the Vivaldi Sacred Music, and very enjoyable it is, too. I got it for under 40 euros on Amazon and am well pleased!