There could hardly be two more dramatically contrasted interpretational approaches to Monteverdi's sacred music than those demonstrated on these two records, and to hear them in fairly close proximity is something of an educational experience as well as a musical one. The Pecs Chamber Choir is the larger vocal ensemble (more than 30 singers appear on the photograph on the front of the accompanying booklet), and this clearly inhibits the achievement of textural clarity. This is not merely a pedantic insistence on the historical fact that Monteverdi's own resources were smaller, but also a statement of the obvious musical fact that even with the best singers a substantial amount of detail is sacrificed; some of the work actually disappears. In the case of the Pecs choir the upper line is clear, firm and bright in tone, but unfortunately the lower voices provide rather weak support (this is particularly true of the basses), and the result is lack of definition, woolly articulation and poor attack. Equally related to the initial decision about forces is the choice of tempos which are here on the slow side, presumably in order to give the more active passages an opportunity to speak. But the consequence is that all the movements of the four-voice Mass, not in any case Monteverdi's most characteristic or dramatic work, begin at impossibly slow speeds even when, as with the opening statement of the Gloria, the sense of the text encourages something more vigorous. Similar problems afflict the performance of the six-voice Laetaniae, written in a simple functional style and probably designed for outdoor as well as indoor use. The last two tracks, which present movements from the 1610 Vespers, are more successful, but the overall conclusion is that these performances are driven into an interpretional impasse by the initial choices about forces. In contrast to the Stuttgart group, which uses early instruments, the instrumental interpolations in Laudate Dominum are played on modern trumpets and trombones, with the result that these lines are too prominent when they are merely stiffening the texture in ensemble sections.
The Stuttgart Chamber Choir and Baroque Ensemble take us into a different world, and perhaps the first thing to be said about their record is that it has been planned with great imagination, with a judicious balance of small-scale concertato motets in a variety of styles framed by two eith-voice works (the final Magnificat setting, one of four that Monteverdi is known to have composed, gains greatly in sonority from the incorporation of the optional instrumental lines). My only doubt concerns the choice of the double-choir setting of Memento Domine David, a slight piece in the prima prattica manner which is hardly saved by the opposition of high- and low-clef groupings. That aside, this is a sensitive selection of first-class works, and Frieder Bernius and his fellow artists more than do them justice. Since the appearance some years ago of The Parley of Instruments LP of some of Monteverdi's small-scale sacred vocal pieces (Hyperion A66021, 10/81), I have been keen to hear more of this repertory sung by Emma Kirkby, who showed on that occasion a fine command of the dramatic rhetoric of the concertato style, and her appearance on a number of the tracks on this record is not a disappointment. She is well matched by Inga nielsen, and the two tenors, William Kendall and John Elwes, are also nicely complementary; there is some especially fine singing from Elwes in the first of the two Salve regina settings, and the echo effects of the second tenor, a favourite Monteverdian idea, gain in affective power from the clarity of the CD carrier. The Stuttgart choir sound much smaller than the Pecs group, and their delivery is lively and well-articulated, though some of the accentual techniques adopted become rather irritatingly mannered by the end of the disc. Incisiveness and good ensemble are underpinned by some usefully sharp continuo playing, the harpsichord being used throughout; the comparison with the less precise attack and sometimes rather heavy registration of the organ on the Pecs recording is again instructive. All in all this is an imaginative and convincing record, probably the finest currently available of selections from the Selva morale, and essential listening for any Monteverdi enthusiast.'