Monteverdi’s solo motets often fall between the cracks, and yet here is an early baroque genre which the composer fostered with remarkable distinction. Think of the shining immediacy of ‘Nigra sum’ from the 1610 Vespers (not actually recorded here) and you have the measure of how Monteverdi relished the chance to caress words with such singularly acute handling. In Maria Cristina Kiehr’s recital, the choice of works is key: other than the self-consciously clever Jubilet, where the solo is in dialogue with itself as an echo, the pieces are of a consistently affecting order, well contrasted and complementary. Many will know Kiehr’s singing from numerous recordings for Jacobs, Herreweghe and others, and this intelligent Argentinian soprano here reveals a good deal of herself over an hour or so of Monteverdi’s contemplative introspection, uninhibited elation and tortured declamation.
Yet Kiehr is no drama queen prone to crawling over Monteverdi’s more demonstrative outpourings: she exudes a contemplative sensuality in Salve, O Regina utterly befitting this masterpiece of Venetian Marian devotion, and generally she gravitates towards simmering nobility and a contained fervour, as in the fetching Currite populi, which is shaded significantly by her dark Latin vowels. This aspect of her voice can, intermittently, be her undoing (as can a tendency to sharpness) when her timbre can seem a touch unyielding and dynamic range under-explored; in this regard Pianto della Madonna, the ‘sacred travesty’ transformed from Lamento d’Arianna, is not as effective as it might have been. The ultra-secular undertones of Ariadne left high and dry by Theseus, metamorphosed into the Virgin’s lament on the death of Jesus, reveal Monteverdi’s pragmatism at its most chancy. The bona fide Vesper pieces, though, are largely an unalloyed pleasure with Kiehr in glorious full flight in the ‘Confitebor’ of the Messa a quattro. Here, and in the ecstatic Exulta, she demonstrates an elevated rhythmic control and sustained tonal focus, agreeably if uncharismatically supported by Concerto Soave. In sum, a recital of considerable quality.'