Last Updated on July 26, 2024
The Sixteen – The Monteverdi Vespers of 1610 at the Barbican Hall – Review
The world-renowned choir of The Sixteen, founded in 1979 by the equally renowned, world-famous choral director Harry Christophers CBE, gave a concert last Wednesday night at the Barbican Hall to celebrate its 45th year. The Sixteen and its period instrument orchestra, famous for singing and playing the music of the Renaissance, the Baroque and 20th Century to the highest standard, on this occasion performed one of their signature pieces, The Monteverdi Vespers of 1610, which is a showcase of their exceptional talent and artistry.
Harry Christophers is considered to be one of today’s ‘great champions of choral music’ and he was seventy in December. Since 2000, under his leadership, the Sixteen has completed an annual Choral Pilgrimage which takes them to the finest cathedrals, churches and chapels of our nation and presents a different theme each time, this year’s being Masters of Imitation, based on Renaissance masters. The Sixteen are the Voices of Classic FM, they tour the world, have an Artist Residency at the Wigmore Hall and were in the Sacred Spaces series for BBC television. It also has its own record label, CORO, and an extensive outreach programme that supports Genesis Sixteen, a choral training group for young and aspiring singers who want to become professional performers.
There was much excitement amongst the audience as they gathered in the pleasant evening on the terrace by the lake and fountains, opposite the beautiful mediaeval church of St. Giles Cripplegate and the City of London School for Girls; an oasis of calm, faith and culture amidst the concrete Barbican complex. On entering the concert hall foyer there was a neat display of CDs to purchase, including The Sixteen’s most current ones, the CD of the performance that evening – Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610, Masters of Imitation (2024), A Watchful Gaze (2023), Sirens’ Song (2023), and 70, A Life in Music (2024), an album dedicated to the work of Harry Christophers and The Sixteen.
The well designed and spacious concert hall had a few very interesting period instruments already on the stage; a violone (a large viol, rather like a double bass but can have a different number of strings), played by Judith Evans, and the rather amazing looking theorbo, which looks rather like a large lute with a very long neck, and indeed it is of the lute family, but different; its first two strings are tuned an octave lower and its extended neck houses a second peg box; this was played by Eligio Luis Quinterio. The rest of the small orchestra consisted of a harp (Joy Smith), an organ (Alastair Ross), a cello (Jonathan Rees), two violins (Colin Scobie – leader and Sarah Moffat), two violas (Martin Kelly and Stefanie Heichelheim), two recorders (Rebecca Miles and Ian Wilson), a dulcian (a predecessor of a modern bassoon) (Sally Jackson), three cornetti (wind instruments, like trumpets but with fingerholes like flutes) (Helen Roberts, Jamie Savan and Jeremy West) and three sackbuts (early forms of trombones) (Sue Addison, Stephanie Dyer and Stephen Saunders). The continuo section was made up of the organ, harp and theorbo. Throughout the concert, it was fascinating to see how brilliantly the musicians played their period instruments and how beautifully they accompanied the singers. The Sixteen choir actually had twenty singers that evening, with six singers designated as soloists; Charlotte Mobbs and Katy Hills as sopranos, Jeremy Budd and Mark Dobell as tenors, and Ben Davies and Eamonn Dougan as basses.
The Monteverdi Vespers is a highly complex and active work, a real test of skill and musicality. Claudio Monteverdi (1567 – 1632), born in Cremona, Italy, composed the Vespers in 1610 as an example of his best music in order to leave his current position at Mantua where he was court choirmaster (1590-1613) for the Gonzagas (the Dukes of Mantua), and get another more illustrious position – it was dedicated to Pope Pius V, so he was probably hoping to work in Rome. Monteverdi actually succeeded in becoming maestro di cappella at the Basilica of San Marco, Venice. He wrote nine books of madrigals, three complete operas, including L’Orfeo (1607) and many large-scale religious works, but unfortunately, much of this music is lost. The title of the work is ‘Mass… and Vespers for the Blessed Virgin’ (Missa…ac Vespro della Beata Vergine), or just ‘Vespro della Beata Vergine’, a setting of the evening vespers on Marian feasts. It consists of alternate choral and solo movements set to sacred texts; the Responsorium, five psalms, a hymn ‘Ave maris stella’, the Magnificat, four ‘sacred concertos’ (set to the Song of Songs) and a ‘Sonata sopra Sancta Maria’. In all the movements Monteverdi miraculously weaves in the appropriate Gregorian chant (the cantus firmus) at various times in different voice parts.
The concert began with the Responsorium, ‘Deus in adiutorium meum intende’, ‘O God, make haste to save me’, from Psalm 70, a stunning and vibrant work for the whole choir and orchestra, opened by the tenor, the amazing Mark Dobell. There followed the psalm (Psalm 110), ‘Dixit Dominus’, for soloists (sopranos and tenors) and orchestra, which was wonderfully lively and full of variety and rhythmic vitality and imitation between parts. It had instrumental interludes in it, called ritornellos, in this movement played in turn by the recorders, the cornetti and sackbuts, and violins. The wonderful profound Gloria, with its long legato notes and luscious harmony, was sung as a tenor solo with the theorbo and then the whole ensemble joined together in the lively ‘Sicut erat’ and elegant ‘Amen’. Then onto the absolutely beautiful ‘Nigra sum’, from the Song of Songs, a sacred concerto sung by Mark Dobell and accompanied beautifully on the theorbo; they both moved to the side of the stage and the performance was exquisite and an example of amazing skill and artistry. ‘Laudate pueri’ for eight voices and continuo, was the next psalm, (Psalm 113), and contained wonderful polyphony, harmonies and varieties of rhythm and colour, and amazingly virtuosic passages especially for the two tenors, Mark Dobell and Jeremy Budd.
The ‘Pulchra es, amica mea’, ‘You are beautiful, my love’, was the next sacred concerto, for the soprano soloists Charlotte Mobbs and Katy Hill and continuo, which demonstrated their beautiful voices, wonderful technique and their great delicacy. Some lovely discords here. ‘Laetatus sum’, ‘I was glad’, (Psalm 122), was a wonderfully animated number, with a great jolly ground base played on the dulcian, providing thrilling energy, and the choir responded with the most elegant singing and a dance-like feel. I loved the moment at ‘Propter fratres meos…loquebar pacem de te’, when the voices sung in a round, asking for peace from God, and then the dulcian played its sparkly tune again.
The sacred concerto ‘Duo Seraphim’ followed, for the two tenor soloists and one bass, Ben Davies, who represent two narrators and then the seraphim praising God. This contained delicious suspensions and singing of great virtuosity, with florid passages and use of repeated notes to inspire emotion, ‘effetti’ which are ‘emotional ornaments’. The psalm ‘Nisi Dominus’ (Psalm 127), was the final work of the first half, an energetic number for the whole choir. It has a fun walking bass and lovely emphases at words like ‘frustra’ (in vain) and ‘surgite’ (get up), when there are fanfare-like passages passing between the voices. It is very rhythmically complex and I particularly loved the rhythm change at ‘sicut sagittae in manu potentis’, (as arrows in the hand of the mighty).
After the interval we were treated to the final psalm ‘Lauda Jerusalem, Dominum’, ‘Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem’, (Psalm 147), a vibrant and complex movement where the tenors sing the plainchant and the other parts sing in canons, the sopranos singing some lovely high notes, all creating a wonderful texture. And then onto the most wonderful instrumental piece, ‘Sonata sopra Sancta Maria’. There is only one chant / prayer in the text, ‘Sancta Maria, ora pro nobis’, ‘Holy Mary, pray for us’, which is only sung in the sopranos and is done so eleven times in long lyrical notes. The instrumental playing was outstanding, especially in the violins and cornetti. ‘Audi coelum verba mea’, ‘Hear, O heaven, my words’, was next, the last sacred concerto, a duet for two tenor voices who sing in call and response, with continuo accompaniment. Jeremy Budd stood at the front of the stage and Mark Dobell stood on the first balcony as ‘the echo’, the words of the echo having a subtly different meaning, e.g. gaudio \ audio, (with joy \ I hear). Budd’s agility and sensitivity was wonderful and Dobell as ‘the echo’ was heavenly. This work was incredibly beautiful and quite sublime, beautifully honouring Our Lady as she is taken into heaven. ‘Ave maris stella’ (Hail, star of the sea) was the last exquisite Marian hymn, with the soprano and bass soloists accompanied by organ and theorbo, and ritornelli between the verses, all beautifully played and sung. I really loved the violins, recorders and cornetti here. The Amen for this movement is particularly striking.
The Magnificat was the last piece of the concert; there are two versions and the longer, more elaborate one was performed. There is a movement for each verse of the Gospel text from Luke and two for the Doxology, ‘Gloria Patri’ and ‘Sicut erat’. The Magnificat starts with ‘Magnificat anima mea Dominum’, ‘My soul doth magnify the Lord’, proclaimed by the choir in rich harmony. This is followed by the stunning, lively and virtuosic duet for tenors in the ‘Et exultavit’, accompanied by continuo. I loved the recorders in the ‘Quia respexit’ and the wonderful bass soloists, Ben Davies and Eamonn Dougan, in ‘Quia fecit mihi magna’, singing their lively rhythms against the superb violins. ‘Et misericordia’ was a beautiful contrast, starting off dramatically with a slow, sad melody in the basses, then moving between the parts, stunningly beautiful. ‘Fecit potentiam’ was a chant sung by altos with long slow notes against the very lively violins and continuo, with plenty of syncopated rhythms, and ‘Deposuit potentes’ was again a beautiful intense movement with the cornetti excelling themselves with beautiful playing as the tenors sang their chant. Next came ‘Esurientes’, another sublime movement where the sopranos sang their words unaccompanied, having been introduced by the cornetti and continuo. ‘Suscepit Israel’ followed, a beautiful movement for two soprano soloists who sing in very florid passages showcasing their beautiful tone and technique and a tenor singing the chant. ‘Sicut locutus est’ was the last verse before the Gloria; a legato chant from the altos on top of the lively instruments who are playing in two groups in an entertaining dialogue, in particular violins against cornetti.
‘Gloria Patri’ was an amazing movement; the tenor soloists sang call and response in the most virtuosic passages and the sopranos sang a serene melody against them. Mark Dobell, the travelling tenor and ‘echo’ of the evening, this time was placed behind a window in the wooden screen at the back of the stage, to amazing effect. The last movement of the evening was ‘Sicut erat’, and all the guns came out blazing in a full ensemble; suspensions and dissonance, rich harmonies and textures, lively rhythms, virtuosic singing, a wonderful full sound and cascading figures in all parts in the ‘Amen’. This concluded a most wonderful concert which will live with the hearers for a very long time. It was like a masterclass in performing and the balance and understanding between the singers, the instrumentalists and the conductor was most moving and was met with a well-deserved rapturous reception from the audience.
The Sixteen is performing in its Choral Pilgrimage 2024, Masters of Imitation, on the following dates:
10 June 7.30pm at Croydon Minster
10 September 7.30pm at Old Royal Naval Chapel, Greenwich
For a full list of tour dates and to Book tickets visit thesixteen.com
