The Glory of Venice: Caldara, Lotti, Vivaldi - Ensemble PHOENIX (director Myrna Herzog) hosts The Madrigal Singers and soloists in a program of sacred and secular Italian Baroque music

Photo: Yoel Levy

 

When music-lovers speak of the splendour of the Baroque, Venice is quick to come to mind, in particular, the musical establishment of the Basilica of San Marco and Claudio Monteverdi, who produced the two surviving operas of his maturity there. It was in Venice that the first public opera house opened in 1637. The city’s plazas were alive with the sounds of religious processions and carnival celebrations, prosperous merchants and aristocrats hosted private musical soirées in their palazzos and the "ospedali" (charitable religious institutions caring for orphans and other wards of the state), where Vivaldi was employed, gave their charges such exclusive musical education that many went on to become impressive performers. In a recent concert "The Glory of Venice: Caldara, Lotti, Vivaldi", Ensemble PHOENIX offered audiences a glimpse into the magnificence of the music of Baroque Venice, music both sacred and secular. Conducted by PHOENIX founder and artistic director Myrna Herzog, a small instrumental ensemble on period instruments was joined by The Madrigal Singers (director: Itay Berkovich) and soloists Tal Ganor, Monica Schwartz (sopranos), Rona Shrira (alto), Yonathan Suissa (tenor), Hagai Berenson (baritone), Noam Schuss (violin) and two soloists from the Madrigal Singers - Omri Aizenbud (tenor) and Matan Gendelman (bass). This writer attended the concert on December 9th 2021 in the chapel of the Monastery of St. Vincent de Paul (Jerusalem), an impressive 19th century ecclesiastical structure.

 

Israeli audiences may not be aware of the importance of the influence the compositional styles of Antonio Lotti and Antonio Caldara had on such composers as Bach, Handel and Mozart. In fact, some view Lotti's Requiem as the most important Requiem before Mozart’s. Opening the concert was Lotti's Requiem Mass in F major, a work written essentially in the late Baroque idiom, but occasionally recalling certain of Vivaldi’s larger sacred vocal pieces. Characterising the PHOENIX performance were the many contrasts of mood from movement to movement, from a sense of urgency and fate, to plangent moments, to triumphant utterances, indeed, a musical canvas of theatrical gestures, complex polyphony, warmly captivating, up-to-date harmonic progressions and fluid melodies. The soloists, in various groups or solo, either configured against the choir or not, moved in and out of the weave. They gave personal expression to the texts - Jonathan Suissa's musical- and emotional involvement, Tal Ganor's sensitive, carefully sculpted melodic lines in the Mors Stupebit, Monica Schwartz and Rona Shrira's duetting in the tragic Lacrimosa and the interaction between Ganor with Noam Schuss (violin obligato) in the heart-rending Qui Mariam, to mention a few. Dr. Herzog chose to replace the trumpet with the rounded, warm, yet forthright cornetto (Alma Mayer); carrying the wind section splendidly, Mayer and oboist Amir Bakman heralded compelling statements, also folding in agreeably with the timbres of the small string ensemble. In fact, the Requiem's instrumentalization is beguiling, with rapturous solos here and there adding concertante and ripieno effects, striking harmonic effects and dramatic moments. Joining 1st violinist Schuss, Noam Gal's playing was well shaped and communicative. The Madrigal Choir's singing was mellifluous and coherent, its dramatic utterances never forced, its members' diction articulate. A demanding work, with not a weak moment.

 

Today, Antonio Caldara is not a name many would recognise, let alone regard as one of the Italian Baroque's celebrated composers; yet, during his own lifetime and long after his death, he was held in high esteem by composers and theoreticians alike. In fact, history has paid him a double-edged compliment in that his Magnificat setting in C became known by Bach, who re-arranged its Suscepit Israel movement in the early 1740s, thereby giving it a place in the catalogue of his works (BWV1082). At the PHOENIX concert, the Caldara Magnificat was performed as the composer had penned it. Although Caldara's score calls for a sumptuous orchestral force, the small ensemble at the PHOENIX concert, now including timpani: Evgeny Karasik, gave formidable expression to Caldara's compositional manner in a work typical of his mix of conservative and more modern writing. Among noteworthy moments were bass Hagai Berenson's fresh, rich singing and the Deposuit, in which Hila Heller wove a beautiful viola obligato around Rona Shrira's singing of the aria, and with a subtle touch of ornamentation. The choir's engagement in the two sacred works was both musical and profound. Under the attentive direction of Itay Berkovich, we are witnessing the Madrigal Singers becoming one of Israel's top-ranking vocal ensembles.  

 

If spring has traditionally been a time of light-headed revelling, Antonio Vivaldi begs to differ. The scene of the Allegro from "Autumn" (Four Seasons) opens on a country dance at a harvest festival. The music is crisp and uninhibited, the celebration and dancing fuelled by some good Italian wine. You can even hear the carousers falling asleep before re-joining the dance. Not taken at breakneck speed by Herzog (too often the case), she and Schuss transport the listener into the theatrical scene. Schuss peoples it with various rustic characters, delighting us with dramatic rubati, with her fantasy and the wink of an eye, also with her virtuosity and precision. And how supportive an imaginative continuo section can be (Guy Pardo-organ, Katharine van der Beek-Baroque 'cello and Evie Bloom-violone, making her PHOENIX debut) when presenting such a scene!

 

Here's a question: What is a bourgeois German opera composer like Johann Adolf Hasse doing on the secular Venetian scene?  It transpires that Hasse and his wife, opera singer Faustina Bordoni, found employment at the Dresden court in Venice, then in 1773 deciding to retire there to lead a quiet life with the composer, teaching and composing cantatas and religious music. The PHOENIX concert concluded with Hasse's setting of a Venetian gondola song "Mia cara Anzoletta (a far cry from his cantatas and religious music.) The Venetian Canzoni da battello or "boat songs" are quite a unique phenomenon in the musical panorama of the 18th century. These songs, sung in dialect and composed strictly anonymously, were quickly made popular throughout Europe, thanks to an edition by John Walsh who published a collection of them in London in 1742, attributing some to none other than Johann Adolf Hasse! "Mia cara Anzoletta", offering a glimpse into a risqué conversation between two women, was given a joyful, rollicking performance, the PHOENIX dancelike arrangement including all on stage, with Herzog on tambourine and verses portioned off to soloists, ensembles and choir.  

In "The Glory of Venice", Dr. Myrna Herzog and the musicians joining her in this concert paid homage to the golden age of Venice, shedding light on its wealth of sacred and popular music, in performance that was enlightened, exciting and masterful. 

Myrna Herzog (Yoel Levy)