Word: monteverdi
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WITH singular integrity the Cambridge Society for Early Music last Wednesday evening avoided the institutionalized classics of antiquity, particularly those Interesting Historical Figures Palestrina, Monteverdi and Gabrieli, to present two pivotal and masterful liturgical compositions. These were the Musikalische Exequien (1636) of Heinrich Schutz, and the Vesperae de Dominica (1779) of Mozart. The first work was instrumental in transferring musical hegemony from Italy to Germany, while the Mozart work illustrates that composer's bursting maturity, a maturity which would soon reach its highest achievement in his church music with the great unfinished Mass in C minor...
...died in the world of Corneille and Racine, was the greatest German composer before Bach. His surpassing importance as one of music's choral masters is exceeded only by his inexplicable anonymity. He absorbed the colossal Baroque style of Giovanni Gabrieli as well as the audacious innovations of Monteverdi, both Schutz's contemporaries and teachers, to forge a colorfully formal, intensely spiritual, quietly progressive style. In its unorthodox form, the Exequien looks forward to the cantatas of Bach and the oratorios of Handel. The work is characterized by an evangelical passion which perhaps only Bach and Verdi, in his singularly...
...repertoire. Realizing that an entire evening of full chorus and orchestra would be a dubious effort on only seven weeks of rehearsal, Schmidt wisely reduced his voices to madrigal size for part of the concert. Not surprisingly, the most sensitive performances came from these smaller ensembles. Monteverdi's Tirsi e Clori, a ballo concertato for two soloists, strings and chorus, was performed with taste and elegance. The solos were handled creditably by Jacqueline Goodspeed and Henry Gibbons...
...MONTEVERDI: L'INCORONAZIONE Dl POPPEA (Cambridge; 4 LPs). Monteverdi, the true father of opera, composed Popped in 1642, when the art was still in its infancy. This is the first complete recording of his lusty, utterly amoral libretto and gentle music. Yet the results probably fall short of Monteverdi's intentions. In his day, singers, not composers or conductors, were kings; and no modern revival can ever recapture their singular contributions to a performance. For instance, two major roles in Poppea, scored for castrato voices, are sung in this recording by a countertenor and tenor, who provide earnest...
...Near the Ocean, the first few pages bring together Goliath, God, Joan Baez, Cotton Mather, Jesus Christ, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Monteverdi, Trollope, civil rights