Vivaldi, Vespro a San Marco

Vibrantly emotional, near dreamlike… Celebrating the "Red Priest's" stylistic wealth, Leonardo García Alarcón imagines sumptuous choral vespers dedicated to St Mark. When Vivaldi's fantasy seems to live mostly in opera houses or concert rooms, here are pieces devoted to the Divine Office. A masterpiece! A refreshing realisation of Leonardo García Alarcón heading one of the best choir in the world! Ce disque reconstitue un office de vêpres à Saint Marc de Venise, et présente des œuvres d'une grande diversité où vous apparaîtront toute l'excellence vivaldienne que nous apprécions tant . Magnifique et somptueux. Une réalisation exceptionnelle du chef argentin Leonardo García Alarcón à la tête d'un des meilleurs ensembles vocaux du monde.

“After reading several critical studies of the life and work of Antonio Vivaldi, I finally find it harder and harder to grasp his personality. He at once intimidates and blithely eludes us. His music makes an immense emotional impact on us yet possesses an exquisite lightness very close to the dream-state. Why Vivaldi? Why do we both love and scorn him, and with the same vehemence? Why does he so move today’s listeners? One might imagine many answers to this, but the only real answer is in his music, and will forever remain a mystery. It is always tempting to go deeper into his techniques of composition, even if only to find out the names of the flowers he used to create the colours of his palette. One interesting approach seems to me to be to compare his music with that of Claudio Monteverdi. Both were Venetian by birth or adoption, but they were also priests, composers who played a bowed instrument, and revolutionaries (one in the domain of the human voice, the other in that of instrumental music); and, in short, both were creators of forms which admirably combine instrumental and vocal music. Whereas almost all the great composers in the history of music since the early seventeenth century have been keyboard players who wrote at their instruments, Monteverdi and Vivaldi stand out for the fact that they were not. Hearing a contrapuntal piece by either of them today, one finds it hard to guess how this counterpoint comes to life, whence it draws its source of inspiration. It might be regarded as a handicap not to be a keyboard player, but in the end one realises that the fact that they did not have precision rulers at their fingertips to dictate how to compose a canon, a ricercare or a fugue meant they had to look all the harder to find the solution, and resulted in unique structures and innovative proportions. What might have been a limitation generated a wealth of ideas..” - Leonardo García Alarcón



COMPLETE : 2 discs - 58 tracks
Total duration: 01:56:53

DISC 1

Deus in adjutorium
1. Deus in adjutorium 00:08
2. Domine ad adjuvandum 02:14
3. Gloria 03:20
4. Sicut erat in principio 02:15
5. Sancti tui Domine 00:40


Dixit Dominus (Psaume 109), RV 807
6. Dixit Dominus 01:35
7. Donec ponam 02:40
8. Virgam virtutis 02:18
9. Tecum principium 01:39
10. Juravit Dominus 01:34
11. Dominus a dextris tuis 01:47
12. Judicabit in nationibus 01:38
13. Implebit ruinas 00:52
14. De torrente 03:03
15. Gloria 01:53
16. Sicut erat in principio 03:06
17. In caelestibus regnis 00:31

Confitebor tibi Domine (Psaume 110), RV 596
18. Confitebor tibi Domine 02:34
19. Memoriam fecit 02:51
20. Sanctum et terribile 02:10
21. Intellectus bonus 01:42
22. Gloria 01:16
23. Et in saecula saeculorum 01:04
24. In velamento clamabant 00:31

Beatus Vir (Psaume 111), RV 795 

25 Beatus vir 02:24
26. Gloria et divitiae 01:55
27. Exortum est 03:25
28. Jucundus homo 02:34
29. In memoria aeterna 04:36
30. Paratum cor ejus sperare 02:33
31. Dispersit 02:47
32. Peccator videbit 03:22
33. Gloria 02:32


DISC 2

Spiritus et animae
1. Spiritus et animae 00:31

Laudate pueri Domine (Psaume 112), RV 600 

2. Laudate pueri Dominum 01:55
3. Sit nomen Domini 02:50
4. A solis ortu 01:47
5. Excelsus super 02:44
6. Quis sicut Dominus 02:14
7. Suscitans a terra 01:26
8. Ut collocet 01:48
9. Gloria 03:17
10. Laudate pueri Dominum 01:32
11. Amen 01:44
12. Fulgebunt justi 00:26

Lauda Jerusalem (Psaume 147), RV 609 

13. Lauda Jerusalem 06:12

Magnificat (Cantique), RV 610 

14. Lux perpetua 00:48
15. Magnificat 01:12
16. Et exsultavit 01:51
17. Et misericordia 03:39
18. Fecit potentiam 00:25
19. Deposuit potentes 00:49
20. Esurientes 01:19
21. Suscepit Israel 00:55
22. Sicut locutus 01:35
23. Gloria 02:18

Oremus 

24. Oremus 00:56

Laetatus sum (Psaume 121), RV 607
25. Laetatus sum 03:11