Art Choral Vol.2: Baroque I - Ensemble Artchoral; Matthias Maute
Art Choral Vol.2 – Baroque I
Ensemble Artchoral; Matthias Maute
ATMA ACD2 2421 (atmaclassique.com/en/product/art-choral-vol-2-baroque-i)
Those seeking the mesmerizing and magical in their choral listening will enjoy this album of works by 16th and 17th century experimenters such as Gesualdo, Schütz, Monteverdi and Purcell —part of an ATMA series comprising fifteen volumes of music from 16th to the 21st centuries. Matthias Maute and Quebec’s Ensemble ArtChoral achieve a deft ensemble dynamic while also delivering the soloist flair that is so needed in this repertoire.
The opening track, Il Lamento d’Arianna by Claudio Monteverdi, sparkles with the “meraviglia” (wonderment) which the composer sought to depict, as discussed in the recent book Monteverdi and the Marvellous by Canadian scholar Roseen Giles. From the first words, (“Lasciatemi morire / Let me die”), their intensity and precision dissolves at times to sweetness, as it should.
Carlo Gesualdo’s music is known for its colourful word-painting, involving shifts from exaggerated chromaticism to melodious diatonicism. Especially effective on this recording is the reading of Tristis et anima mea, a church responsory set with the florid and dramatic style of a madrigal and delivered with the panache that Gesualdo deserves.
Maute approaches the Purcell pieces differently than this reviewer has heard or sung before. Especially with Man that is Born of a Woman – and In the Midst of Life, into which it segues without credit – the pace feels so rushed that in places the dissonances and text settings fly by rather than lingering painfully as seems apt for a funeral piece. It is a bold choice, but the madrigal-like delivery is effective in such sections as “He fleeth as it were a shadow / and ne’er continuith...” One can’t imagine that the choir of Westminster Abbey sung it this way at Queen Mary’s funeral, for which it was composed, but this performance cleverly points to Purcell’s Italian influences and stands as an alternate interpretation of this rich and beloved repertoire.