|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
When Pegasus Early Music celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2015, artistic director Deb Fox wanted to present a special concert. She chose one of the grandest masterpieces of Renaissance and Baroque music, Claudio Monteverdi’s “Vespro a la Virgine Maria 1610”(usually just called the Monteverdi Vespers), performed by two dozen outstanding musicians.
The result was a memorable, soldout event. So, for the 20th anniversary concert of Pegasus this spring, Fox decided to make lightning strike twice and bring back the Monteverdi Vespers.
Which is fine with her: “It’s my favorite piece.” She first encountered it about 25 years ago and has performed it numerous times. “I never tire of hearing or playing it. To me, it’s the perfect piece of music. It is long, but there’s not a note extra.”
The 2025 Pegasus Vespers will again bring together 25 distinguished early music singers and players, led by Grammy-winning lute virtuoso and conductor, and longtime Eastman professor, Paul O’Dette, who conducted the 2015 Vespers. The concert takes place on Sunday, April 6 at 4 p.m. at Asbury First United Methodist Church.
Just what is the Monteverdi Vespers? It’s actually many pieces of sacred music—12, and a “Magnificat” in 12 sections. It lasts about 90 minutes, and each number calls for a different combination of singers and instrumentalists. Besides the “Magnificat,” the Biblical texts are taken from different Psalms and from the Song of Solomon.
There’s no evidence that this compendium was performed completely in Monteverdi’s lifetime (1567-1643) or even before the 20th century. In fact, says Fox, the composer may not even have intended his Vespers to be performed as a whole.
“The Vespers collection was written on spec, as a sort of audition piece for a new job,” she explains. “Monteverdi was a court musician in Mantua, but he was interested in moving to the big city—Venice or Rome. So, he put together this huge collection to show what he could do as a composer: chant, solo songs and duets, madrigals, choral music, instrumental music, even opera.” (The opening flourish of the Vespers is also the opening flourish of Monteverdi’s opera “Orfeo,” written a few years earlier.) Monteverdi was the first great master of opera, and Fox points out that the voice parts are operatically demanding, with huge ranges.
“The music is a wonderful synthesis of Renaissance and Baroque,” she adds; “Sixteenth-century polyphony (voices singing in counterpoint) with 17th-century forms and style. There’s a huge variety of forms, which makes it so much fun!”
(You can see a video introducing the Vespers with conductor O’Dette above; and Pegasus is offering an open rehearsal of the piece for the general public on April 3.)
The performance will bring to Rochester musicians from Montreal to Texas and at least 10 local performers. They include 10 singers to comprise what Fox describes as “a small, expressive choir.”
Fox plays the lute and theorbo (plucked-string instruments that predate the guitar) and is a frequent soloist in Pegasus concerts and early music events all over. She’ll play one of the three theorbos required by Monteverdi, joining trombones, cornettos (early trumpets), recorders, strings, and organ—an enormous ensemble whose variety of sound adds to the work’s overall grandeur.
Monteverdi would have hoped to hear these pieces performed in a cathedral. Fox thinks that Asbury First United Methodist Church will provide an ideal soundscape.
“It’s not only a sacred space, it’s also acoustically excellent for this music, with stone walls allowing the sound to bounce off,” she says. “And it has excellent sightlines, as well as TV screens on the sides that will allow the audience to see the soloists in closeup.”
It’s a fitting setting for a work that Fox describes as “a showpiece. It’s ornate, dramatic, and also deeply spiritual. In the Vespers, Monteverdi expresses all the emotions.”
Pegasus Early Music presents Monteverdi’s “Vespro a la Virgine Maria 1610” on April 6 at 4 p.m. at Asbury First United Methodist Church, 1050 East Avenue. A pre-concert talk by Paul O’Dette is at 3:30 p.m. Information and tickets here. A free open rehearsal is scheduled for April 3, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Asbury Church.
David Raymond is a Rochester Beacon contributing writer.
The Beacon welcomes comments and letters from readers who adhere to our comment policy including use of their full, real name. See “Leave a Reply” below to discuss on this post. Comments of a general nature may be submitted to the Letters page by emailing [email protected].