Vespri di maestro Willaert

25.02.2012 - h - 28.02.2012
CD opname in het kader van 2012, Adriaen Willaert-jaar.

Adriaen Willaert (†1562), Maestro di San Marco a Venezia: Capilla Flamenca in een poëtisch-melancholische en bijzonder weelderige cd-opname.

The Beatles maakten van Liverpool het muzikale centrum in de sixties; in de 16de eeuw maakte Adriaen Willaert Venetië tot het muzikale centrum van Europa!

Adriaen Willaert (ca 1490-1562) | 450 jaar geleden gestorven | 35 jaar Kapelmeester aan de San Marco Basiliek in Venetië | 400 composities: missen, motetten, madrigali, villanesche, chansons, ricercares



Programme
What came before Monteverdi ...


Adriaan Willaert (ca 1490-1562): maestro di cappella at the San Marco Basilica in Venice and creator of the first double-choir Vespers of the Blessed Virgin. 

Without any doubt, Claudio Monteverdi's masterful Vespers setting of 1610 surpassed all previous Vesperae, if only in its stunning symbiosis of old and new styles (prima e seconda pratica) for the first time in the history of Western sacred music. The most intimate music and the most tremendous music complement each other, in perfect balance.

Today almost no one remembers that this polychoral polyphony has its roots in around 1550 with the Flemish composer Adriaan Willaert. At the time of his appointment as maestro di cappella at San Marco in 1527, no one would have suspected that this basilica or its city Venice, would gain such prestige throughout Europe in the next 35 years.

After a thorough musical education in Flanders, Willaert travelled through Europe at an early age, coming into contact with both French and Italian music. He managed to assimilate these styles and to integrate them in the genres of his time like no one else. This polyphonic versatility and the sensitivity to emotion and textual meaning that enabled him to so movingly put words to music, earned him great fame among all the music lovers of his time. His unique talent is apparent in the lush double-choir psalm settings of 1550, which gave unprecedented splendour, as well as moving expressivity, to the ancient monophonic Vespers chant melodies.

In contrast to Monteverdi's Vespers, no instruments were used in the San Marco Basilica before 1566. The sumptuous sound of sackbuts and cornetti was unheard in sacred music. Only the boys' and men's choir and organ were allowed to fill this impressive space with music.  And in contrast to the general idea that these 'salmi spezzadi' or polychoral psalms were sung from around the organs situated opposite each other in the choir lofts of San Marco, recent research has demonstrated that the singers could stand in several places while singing the Vespers.  This could be in 'medio ecclesiae', at the altar, on the south side of the choir at the 'pulpitum magnum cantorum' or on the north side at the 'pulpitum novum lectionum'.  The combined choir of about eight boys and fifteen adult men never sang all together. Willaert observed their vocal skills closely, as well as their knowledge of counterpoint, and on the basis of this divided them into groups. This surely caused rivalry and irritation; for example, contemporary sources state that singing in San Marco was mostly responsorial, that is, alternating between polyphony for the soloists and the rest of the choir ... . 



Performed by Capilla Flamenca: 
8 polyphonic-chant singers and organ