{"id":4141,"date":"2018-02-25T20:19:28","date_gmt":"2018-02-25T20:19:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.larkreviews.co.uk\/?p=4141"},"modified":"2018-02-25T20:19:28","modified_gmt":"2018-02-25T20:19:28","slug":"hastings-philharmonic-vespro-della-beata-vergine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/?p=4141","title":{"rendered":"Hastings Philharmonic: Vespro della Beata Vergine"},"content":{"rendered":"

Christ Church, St Leonards, Saturday 25 February 2018<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

On a bitterly cold evening Hastings Philharmonic presented us with Monteverdi\u2019s liturgical masterpiece \u2013 Vespro della Beata Vergine<\/em> of 1610 \u2013 in the austere acoustic of Christ Church, but a fitting venue for so complex a work.<\/p>\n

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The evening drew together eight solo singers \u2013 one of whom turned out to be Marcio da Silva himself \u2013 together with Hastings Philharmonic Chamber Choir and Baroque. There was a great deal to enjoy and commend, even if there was some shaky intonation in some of the opening choruses. However by the time we had reached Laudate Pueri Dominum <\/em>the balance had settled down with the final Gloria <\/em>impressing.<\/p>\n

Monteverdi divides up the vespers into a large number of shorter works which allow soloists to shine alongside the various instrumental groupings and full choral numbers. Tenor Kieran White was most effective in Nigra sum <\/em>and stunningly so towards the end of the Magnificat<\/em> where he flung beautiful phrases into the vaulted roof, picked up to spine-tingling effect by the off-stage echo. He was joined by tenor Philip O\u2019Meara and Marcio da Silva in his baritone voice, for a ravishing rendition of Duo Seraphim. <\/em>Here Monteverdi uses the tenor duo for the Seraphims but then adds in the Baritone when they sing of the Trinity. It is a magical moment.<\/p>\n

The two sopranos, Sarah Parkin and Joana Gil, had impressed with the delicacy of line in Pulchra es,<\/em> and blended well with the chorus where the composer sets the voices against each other.<\/p>\n

The chorus came into their own in the rolling phrases of Nisi Dominus <\/em>and Lauda Jerusalem, <\/em>and brought warmth and vitality to the final Magnificat.<\/em><\/p>\n

It was a great advantage having a set of baroque instruments giving us an authentic accompaniment to the voices. They tend to get more to do as the work progresses, after the excitement of the opening ritornello, <\/em>and Monteverdi reverses the impact in the Sonata sopra Sancta Maria<\/em> where the sopranos chant the text on a simple line while the ensemble appears to improvise around them. The cornetts and sackbuts were particularly insightful at this point.<\/p>\n

Francis Rayner, Hastings Philharmonic\u2019s regular accompanist, played the organ continuo and Marcio da Silva directed from the Harpsichord. If we had arrived cold, we went out warmed and enlivened by a fine evening \u2013 and another tribute to the quality Hastings Philharmonic are now providing on a regular basis. Brian Hick<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Christ Church, St Leonards, Saturday 25 February 2018 On a bitterly cold evening Hastings Philharmonic presented us with Monteverdi\u2019s liturgical masterpiece \u2013 Vespro della Beata Vergine of 1610 \u2013 in the austere acoustic of Christ Church, but a fitting venue … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4141"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4141"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4141\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4143,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4141\/revisions\/4143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}