Despite the somewhat misleading title, this album does not contain an unknown or rediscovered collection of Mariavespers by Claudio Monteverdi. As is widely known, Monteverdi wrote only one complete set of music for the Marian Vespers: the famous Vespro della Beata Vergine (1610). So what does this album aim to be? A wonderful reconstruction of what a Mariavesper might have sounded like in the last
… years of Monteverdi's life. For this, ensemble Le Poème Harmonique drew largely from motets and other spiritual music from Monteverdi's last years of life, such as the collection Selva morale e spirituale (1640-1641) and the posthumously published Messa a quattro voci e Salmi (1650). As a starting point, the ensemble took a Venetian vesper celebration during one of the church's high festivals. With this, Le Poème Harmonique goes all out. The musicians give free rein to Monteverdi's unbridled creativity, with which the elderly master covered just about all musical styles current at the time. The result is an album as rich as it is varied. Take the almost swinging Laetatus sum prima, in which Monteverdi varies endlessly on a repeated bass line. Surprising is Pianto della Madonna, Monteverdi's own arrangement of his famous Lamento d'Arianna from the lost opera L'Arianna (1608). An absolute highlight is the finale of Beatus Vir: after an impressive bass aria with sonorous trombone, choir and soloists conclude with a slowly blossoming Amen. Monteverdi at his best! (JWvR)more
