Concerto Vocale

“Herreweghe inspires passion from the power of the minimum dose ... For beauty of sound, Herreweghe is your man.” Gramophone Magazine

“…the beauty of this remarkable performance of Schütz's last work resides principally in Collegium Vocale's blooming cradle of sound and how is unassumingly stakes its claim… on the unique ambitions of Schütz's "Swansong". …the doubling of the two four-part choirs with brass gives Herreweghe scope for a variety and scale which ensures that graphic representation emerges from a palette of irradiating luxuriance.” Gramophone Magazine, June 2007

“The beauty of this remarkable performance of Schütz's last work resides principally in Collegium Vocale's blooming cradle of sound and how it unassumingly stakes its claim – with no subtext – on the unique ambitions of Schütz's 'Swansong'.
These are founded on the composer's distilled and often austere contemplation of Psalm 119 in 11 double-choir motets, joined by Psalm 150 and the impressive Deutsches Magnificat.
If not texturally pared down, this is a journey where the 86-year-old Schütz withdraws from the world in a lexicon of finely drawn plainchants, antique modes, taut contrapuntal and antiphonal exchanges, melodic swathes and quicksilver declamations.
Herreweghe illuminates each verse with a considered and gentle ear for the progression from the 'statutes' of faith towards a sense of hope and salvation as we move towards a new Covenant, revealed in the final motet with its assuaging supplications and rock-like assurance.
Here we sense, above all, Schütz's mix of defiance and resignation for the gradual passing of a selfcontained sacred tradition threatened by radical worldly things (like operas).
Collegium Vocale relish Schütz's introspection and easy exchange between solo and tutti sections, which allow the inspired rhetorical mood-changes to reveal each marked-out image ('when thou shalt enlarge my heart' at the end in the second motet is dealt a moment of special attention as it moves towards a conclusion in rapt homage to Monteverdi). Herreweghe's performances are generally outstanding in their attention to detail: some might quibble that the inner tutti voices occasionally lack focus and energy, but this is a performance where Schütz's seasoned harmonic shifts are treated as pure music and not over-accentuated by rhetorical zeal: the music doesn't need it. Can a greater work have been completed by an octogenarian? This recording urges us, very persuasively, to think perhaps not.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“The impressive energy conveyed in the choral singing owes much to the set's guiding force, Maestro Alessandrini, whose leadership consistently results in vital, vibrant performances.” Classics Today

“This isn't the 'Vivaldi Vespers', or even a reconstruction of a specific event, but a kind of 'sacred concert' in Vespers form, of the sort that Venetian churches in Vivaldi's time would mount in the name of worship.
Whether he ever supplied all the music for any such occasion isn't clear, but he certainly set plenty of Vespers texts, enough at any rate for Rinaldo Alessandrini and scholar Frédéric Delaméa to put together this rich programme.
So this is music for a Vespers for the Feast of the Assumption as it might have been heard in one of Venice's more important churches, made up of Vivaldi's settings of the five Vespers psalms, a Magnificat, a Salve Regina, a solo motet (Ascende in laeta) and a couple of orchestral concertos.
Unmistakably Vivaldian in almost every bar, these pieces nevertheless show considerable variety; the psalms range from the opulence of Dixit Dominus for five soloists, two choirs and two choirs, to the expressive solo settings of Laudate pueri and Nisi Dominus, to the breezily functional choral treatments of Laetatus sum and Lauda Jerusalem; Ascende in laeta is a virtuoso showpiece for soprano, and the Salve Regina a sombre vehicle for contralto. The liturgical thread is supplied by plainchant antiphons, prettily rendered in a fascinating conjectural imitation of the 18th century's 'corrupt' manner, which is to say, with organ accompaniment and unabashed ornamentation.
Alessandrini's reading has an energy which is both forthright and controlled. His solo singers are of high quality; Roberta Invernizzi and Sara Mingardo are from the front rank of Italian Baroque singers, capable of expressive lyricism and thrilling virtuosity, but Gemma Bertagnolli is no less effective. The orchestra plays with inspiriting precision and life, but the choir could be improved on, and is poorly favoured in the recorded balance. Indeed, the recorded sound as a whole is a bit noisy, in places suffering a distant mechanical whir. Still, the overall effect is what counts most in a recording like this: the music has a vital sense of direction, resulting in two and a half hours of invigorating listening.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010