Jubilate Deo!
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Johann Sebastian Bach, Francis Poulenc, Claudio Monteverdi, Henry Purcell, Giovanni Gabrieli, John Tavener, Heinrich Schütz
Label: Philips
Magazine Review Date: 3/1997
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 74
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: 446 116-2PH
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| Jubilate Deo I |
Giovanni Gabrieli, Composer
Giovanni Gabrieli, Composer Instrumental Ensemble John Eliot Gardiner, Conductor Monteverdi Choir |
| Or ch'el ciel e la terra |
Claudio Monteverdi, Composer
Claudio Monteverdi, Composer Instrumental Ensemble John Eliot Gardiner, Conductor Monteverdi Choir |
| Freue dich des Weibes deiner Jugend |
Heinrich Schütz, Composer
Heinrich Schütz, Composer Instrumental Ensemble John Eliot Gardiner, Conductor Monteverdi Choir |
| Psalmen Davids sampt etlichen Moteten und Concerte, Movement: Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnunge (Ps 84), SWV29 |
Heinrich Schütz, Composer
Heinrich Schütz, Composer Instrumental Ensemble John Eliot Gardiner, Conductor Monteverdi Choir |
| Hear my prayer, O Lord |
Henry Purcell, Composer
Henry Purcell, Composer John Eliot Gardiner, Conductor Monteverdi Choir |
| O God, thou hast cast us out |
Henry Purcell, Composer
Henry Purcell, Composer Instrumental Ensemble John Eliot Gardiner, Conductor Monteverdi Choir |
| (6) Motets, Movement: Komm, Jesu, komm!, BWV229 |
Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Instrumental Ensemble Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer John Eliot Gardiner, Conductor Monteverdi Choir |
| Figure humaine |
Francis Poulenc, Composer
Francis Poulenc, Composer John Eliot Gardiner, Conductor Monteverdi Choir |
| (The) World is burning |
John Tavener, Composer
Instrumental Ensemble John Eliot Gardiner, Conductor John Tavener, Composer Monteverdi Choir |
Author: Jonathan Freeman-Attwood
This belated celebration of the Monteverdi Choir’s thirtieth birthday comes three years after that notable anniversary in 1994 with the type of repertoire upon which this elite choir have built their outstanding reputation. The Monteverdi generation of composers is represented no more strikingly than by the great man’s madrigal, Hor ch’el ciel e la terra, set to Petrarch and given an impassioned reading, after a controlled and resonant opening. Gardiner’s idealized luxuriance in this repertoire is easily recognizable (boldly expansive vistas abound); if his performances avoid “mindless homogenisation” as if “the whole musical repertoire being performed is in the image of the late 19th century” (to quote Richard Morrison’s tribute in the booklet), the shaping of the phrases has an almost symphonic roundedness which certainly owes a great deal to the nineteenth century. Some may find that Monteverdi’s starkly human musical settings are rather better served within the intimate and vulnerable world of a smaller consort.
Where the Monteverdi Choir can feel a touch disappointed is in the unsympathetic recorded quality, which does little for the distinctive timbre of the voices, especially in the early repertoire. There are a few self-inflicted rough edges here too but things improve radically once the virtuosity and authoritative pacing ofKomm, Jesu, komm seems to subsume acoustical inadequacies. So too in the collective brilliance of the choir in Poulenc’s bewitching cantata, Figure humaine, an a cappella masterpiece of supreme difficulty and captured here with all the guile of a choir who know how to draw the listener into any world they happen to be embracing. Affecting and graphic contrasts, anger juxtaposed with hope, ironic glances, irreverence and ultimate transcendence (the work was composed during the Occupation), are all potently envisioned by Poulenc in a work of shimmering penetration and movingly performed by Gardiner and his choir. John Tavener’s The world is burning makes for a rewarding close, in a disc that is perhaps not quite all that it could have been.
The booklet comprises tributes to the Monteverdi Choir and Gardiner but there are no notes on the music; the listener deserves a little explanation, particularly on the Poulenc and Tavener pieces.'
Where the Monteverdi Choir can feel a touch disappointed is in the unsympathetic recorded quality, which does little for the distinctive timbre of the voices, especially in the early repertoire. There are a few self-inflicted rough edges here too but things improve radically once the virtuosity and authoritative pacing of
The booklet comprises tributes to the Monteverdi Choir and Gardiner but there are no notes on the music; the listener deserves a little explanation, particularly on the Poulenc and Tavener pieces.'
Jubilate Deo!
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