Claudio Monteverdi: Missa in illo tempore

Albumbeschreibung

Monteverdi wrote his Missa In illo tempore, one of his three complete surviving mass settings, as a companion piece to the Vespers of 1610, at least partly to demonstrate to church authorities his mastery of the late-Renaissance, Palestrina-influenced polyphony the conservative hierarchy favored. He certainly succeeded in creating a work of rich contrapuntal intricacy that bears enough of a stamp of his own personality and harmonic preferences that it wouldn't be mistaken for Palestrina, a piece that should have strong appeal to fans of choral music of the period.
Listeners' reaction to this recording featuring the Italian ensemble Odhecaton, led by Paolo da Col, may depend on their preferences in countertenor sound. On this recording countertenors take the soprano and alto parts that would have originally been sung by castrati. The singers on the highest part tend to have a white, somewhat closed tone that is more characteristic of countertenors of a generation ago than the robust, rounded sound of the singers who have emerged since the turn of the 21st century. The group overall sings with a full, nicely sculpted sound, with the nuanced dynamics so crucial for a work made up of such elaborately layered independent lines. The performances don't generate the kind of heat usually associated with Monteverdi, but that may have as much to do with the stricter Renaissance polyphonic style he adopted for this work as with the singing itself.
A strong selling point for the album is the inclusion of the premiere recordings of three Monteverdi motets that had only recently been identified as his work when this recording was made. They are in the more personal, intensely expressive style that characterizes his mature work. The recording inserts them between the movements of the Mass. The stylistic juxtaposition can be startling, but the motets act as refreshing palate cleansers within the austerity of the Mass, and the performers sing them with gusto. The album also includes performances of four works by Giaches de Wert, the Flemish composer whose career ended in Mantua around the time Monteverdi's began there, and Nicolas Gombert's In illo tempore loquente Jesu, the motet from which Monteverdi drew thematic material for his Mass.

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