Benchmark versions:
• (
Stabat Mater,
Clarę stellę)
NAIVE OP30367
Sarah Mingardo (alto); Concerto Italiano/Rinaldo Alessandrini – CD,
or download from
eclassical.com
(mp3 and lossless)
• (
Stabat Mater, with Bach and Pergolesi)
BIS-SACD-1546
Emma Kirkby (soprano); Theatre of Early Music/Daniel Taylor: ‘should
on no account be overlooked’ –
review
– SACD, or download with pdf booklet from
eclassical.com
(mp3, 16- and 24-bit lossless)
• (
Stabat Mater)
HYPERION CDA66799 Robin Blaze; The
King’s Consort/King (CD now Archive Service only or part of
CDS44171/81,
11 budget-price CDs –
review
– or download with pdf booklet from
hyperion-records.co.uk,
mp3 or lossless)
Let me say at the outset that I would be very happy to take any one
of these recordings of the principal work, Vivaldi’s
Stabat Mater,
including the new one from Philippe Jaroussky, to my putative Desert
Island. All have something distinctive to offer: Jaroussky’s very light
counter-tenor voice; Sarah Mingardo and Rinaldo Alessandrini offering
an all-Italian and highly emotional take on the music; Emma Kirkby’s
crystal-clear tones on the only recording available on SACD or in 24-bit
download format and Robin Blaze on Volume 5 of Robert King’s very fine
complete series of Vivaldi’s sacred music, also available as part of
an attractively-priced 11-CD set.
There is one other, very special recording that I should mention: Decca’s
limited-edition 50-CD set of Oiseau-Lyre recordings of
The Baroque
Era (4786753), which I reviewed in
Download
News 2014/10, offers a wonderfully inexpensive starting point for
any collection of the music of this period. These make excellent alternative
recordings for established collectors who don’t own many of the classic
versions, mostly directed by Christopher Hogwood. Even when the limited
edition expires it seems likely that the two halves of the set will
remain available as downloads at an attractive price.
James Bowman sings the Vivaldi
Stabat Mater on Volume 2 of the
Decca set and that’s another candidate for the Desert Island. If you
don’t wish to run to the complete set or even the half set as a download,
Decca have also reissued this performance on budget-price Virtuoso 4783615.
It comes with the
Gloria, RV589, sung by Carolyn Watkinson, and
Nulla in mundo pax sincera and
Amor hai vinto, sung by
Emma Kirkby.
I could throw one other very fine recording into the mix: Andreas Scholl
and Ensemble 415 conducted by Chiara Banchini on Harmonia Mundi (HMC901571
–
DL
News 2013/6) at the risk of confusing you with overmuch choice.
I’ll merely say that if you bought that version or the inexpensive Alto
which I also included in that review (Ex Cathedra/Jeffrey Skidmore)
you need have no regrets.
There were some very talented young musicians at the
Pietą, the
girls’ orphanage for which Vivaldi composed so much of his music and
which gives this album its title – Philippe Jaroussky is shown on the
cover behind the grille from which the young musicians performed and
sang. I doubt, however, if any of them were quite up to the standard
demonstrated on any of these recordings.
If you have one or more of Jaroussky’s earlier recordings – perhaps
the CD or DVD/blu-ray entitled
The Voice/La Voix des Rźves which
I reviewed
here and
here:
the contents are not identical despite the similarity of title – you
will know what to expect. If you haven’t heard his distinctive tones
before, closer to a soprano than an alto, you may wish to sample the
new album first from
Qobuz.
Once accustomed to his distinctive style most listeners become Jaroussky
fans. I certainly have.
Jaroussky takes
Stabat Mater at a fairly sedate pace, almost
a minute longer overall than Bowman and Hogwood, though the appearance
is the other way round. The former keeps the music moving and the latter
pair seem to dwell more on the emotion. Though I enjoyed Jaroussky
directing the Ensemble Artaserse – the first time that he has directed
himself, I think – the Decca performance benefits from having a separate
soloist and conductor: try the accompaniment in part 7,
Eia Mater,
for example.
Blaze and King also take the work fairly briskly overall, though again
there are passages where they emphasise the emotion of the words rather
than keep the music moving forward. I tend to prefer even such affective
music to be kept in motion but if there is any work that benefits from
lingering a little it must be the
Stabat Mater.
Mingardo and Alessandrini linger the most – surprisingly so, given the
conductor’s reputation as something of a whiz kid – with Kirkby and
Taylor a little slower than Jaroussky and a little faster than Bowman
and Hogwood. I’m such a confirmed Kirkby fan that I’m very happy with
a degree of lingering beside the way in the opening section: 3:23 on
BIS against 3:06 on the new Erato – in the other sections timings are
roughly similar.
If you really want to emote in that opening section, Mingardo and Alessandrini
take 3:50. Despite the high regard in which this recording is generally
held – the only version recommended by the current pared-down
Penguin
Guide. Lindsay Kemp in
Gramophone described the original
release as ‘quite special’. I think that’s a little too slow. Mingardo’s
voice – actually deeper in timbre than any of the counter-tenors – lends
itself well to such an interpretation, however, if that’s what you crave.
In
Clarę stellę the tempi on the Mingardo/Alessandrini recording
are much closer to those adopted by Jaroussky and both recordings are
in accord with the joyous spirit of the music.
All five versions sound very well in their various guises – all but
the new Erato heard as downloads. If there’s a small advantage it lies
with the BIS 24-bit version, equivalent to the SACD. Even at $15.32
the download comes at an attractive price, rather less than the £16
or so that you might expect to pay for the SACD, with mp3 and 16-bit
more desirable still at $10.94.
It’s horses for courses, then, with much to enjoy in all these recordings.
If you are looking for a very fine all-Vivaldi vocal programme of the
kind of sacred music that the girls at the Venice
Pietą might
have sung, either the new recording or the Hyperion will do very nicely.
On Hyperion the other works are less well known than the Erato couplings.
Be warned, however, that if you go for Volume 5 of that series you may
well wish that you had chosen the whole set at its attractive price.
The other major work on the new recording is the dramatic
Longe mala,
umbrę, terrores. In the apparent absence of the wonderful recording
made early in her career by Emma Kirkby my benchmark again comes from
the multi-disc set made by the King’s Consort. This is also available
separately on CDA66779, where you will find
Clarę stellę and
Filię męstę Jerusalem. Robert Hugill –
review
– thought Denley a little too careful in her passagework in
Longe
mala but liked James Bowman in the other two works. Overall I’d
hate to choose between such fine recordings as the Hyperion and the
new Erato.
If this is your first encounter with Jaroussky and you like what you
hear, as I anticipate that you will, you may well find yourself going
for one or more of his earlier examples. As well as the two collections
that I have listed above, he has appeared in a number of Naļve recordings
of Vivaldi’s music alongside the likes of Sandrine Piau:
La Fida
Ninfa,
Ercole sul Termodonte, Operatic and Sacred Arias,
La Veritą in Cimento,
Griselda and
Orlando Furioso
and on Dynamic in
Catone in Utica.
I suppose the bonus DVD is the USP of the new Erato. I can usually
happily take or leave such offerings. Its inclusion does make the new
CD an awkward size – too thick to slot into a CD storage tray. The
DVD adds very little to the attractions of the CD – just excerpts from
the recording sessions intercut with a short guided tour of Venice and
Jaroussky’s thoughts on Vivaldi.
The only possible slight reservation about the BIS is that, although
I could happily listen to Emma Kirkby sing the telephone directory,
the programme doesn’t quite hang together. With Pergolesi’s
Salve
Regina as one of the other works it would have been logical to conclude
with that composer’s
Stabat Mater – two wonderful settings of
that poem on one album – rather than Bach’s adaptation of it to a German
Lutheran text.
Similarly, if there’s one fault to be found with the new recordings
it’s a sin of omission: so good is the performance of the small section
of the
Gloria that I hope we shall hear Jaroussky perform the
whole of this work ere long; this even in the face of very strong competition
for this most popular of Vivaldi’s sacred settings. Given that it seems
likely that Vivaldi wrote the
Stabat Mater for a male alto, there’s
otherwise every reason to go for this new entrant.
You might think that listening to five recordings of Vivaldi’s
Stabat
Mater on the trot would be wearing, but such is the quality of all
of them, not least the new Erato, that nothing could be further from
the truth. Philippe Jaroussky writes in the booklet of how much Vivaldi
has been a lucky composer for him. I believe the combination will prove
to be lucky and fruitful again. It certainly deserves to be. If I
have concentrated on
Stabat Mater, I should emphasise that my
enjoyment also extended to the other works.
I had completed this review and was proof-reading when Michael Cookson’s
review
appeared. His one-word summary, ‘admirable’, reflects my views, too.
Brian Wilson
Previous review:
Michael Cookson
