Music for the Virgin Mary

Concerto Delle Donne

Concerto delle Donne are performing a valuable service for those who relish the byways of Baroque music by exploiting little-known repertoires to which their three beautifully-matched soprano voices are uniquely well suited. In this case, the music was composed for fashionable Parisian convents, whose sung services were much frequented by devout noblewomen.

Simply scored for voices and organ, the pieces on this delightful disc display an engaging combination of tenderness and deeply felt devotional fervour, whether in the plain and undramatic Stabat mater, playful duets such as Sicut spina rosam and Gaude felix Anna, with their lilting triple-time passages in thirds, or the joyful alleluias of Regina coeli.

These shorter pieces are complemented by a miniature Christmas oratorio, Frigidae noctis, which tells the story of the angel and the shepherds with a nice mixture of awe and joyful excitement, and ends with a charming pastoral carol. The singers' delectably pure, sweet sound, rhythmic liveliness and stylish ornamentation perfectly capture the spirit of some beautiful and inventive music, ideally suited to its very specific purpose.

Elizabeth Roche

Opera Today.com

This wonderful CD was recorded in the magnificent church of Notre Dame, Rozay-en-Brie, which is 30 miles east of Paris, and contains one of the better-preserved French organs of the seventeenth century, actually played by Francois Couperin during his lifetime.

The Concerto delle Donne specializes in the Italian vocal repertoire of the late 16th and early 17th centuries. The three principal sopranos that perform in the group, all early music experts, collaborate with six other sopranos, as well as the organ mentioned above, to present various Office motets and antiphons composed by Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632-1687), Nicholas-Antoine Lebegue (c. 1631-1702), and Guillaume-Gabriel Nivers (c. 1632-1714), all composed for various feasts and services related to the Virgin Mary. The 16 pieces on the CD are subdivided into various topics, such as Queen of Heaven, The Birth of the Virgin, The Salutation, The Nativity of Christ, A Prayer to the Virgin, The Passion, The Resurrection, and The Coronation of the Virgin.

The sound quality on this CD is absolutely fantastic, as is the singing. The organ continuo on some of the pieces provides a spectacular effect that can only be produced in a cathedral-performance setting. Lovers of French Baroque music will need to include this CD in their collection.

Dr. Brad Eden
University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Goldberg, May 2006

Marc-Antoine Charpentier was particularly prolific in the production of sacred works, with over 450 compositions that include, among other genres, antiphons, hymns, masses, occasion and dramatic motets, and sequences. Well known in late 17th-century Paris, Charpentier worked mostly under the shadow of Lully, yet his music came to be widely admired by his contemporaries, only to be quickly forgotten after his death. A prominent feature of his music is the infusion of typically Italian traits into the French musical tradition, something particularly evident in his motets. This genre includes some of his best music, and the few examples here included are by far the most satisfying part of the recording. Outstanding form the musical and interpretative perspectives, is the motet Frigidae Noctis, which alone makes the CD worthwhile. The all-soprano ensemble, accompanied by solo organ, has a placid, crystal-clear sound, which functions well in giving an introspective, almost pious quality to the music. Although written for sacred setting, the acoustics of the church somewhat obscure many of the rich harmonies and at times the text in otherwise good performances. As a consequence, notwithstanding the variety provided by the inclusion of solo organ works by Nivers and Lebegue, the recording feels fairly homogenous.

Daniel Zuluaga

Gramophone Magazine, October 2006

Ravishing music draws some exquisite singing in response

Although a shade late for Charpentier's tercentenary celebrations, this recording is the culmination of two years of preparation by Concerto delle Donne. Their vigilant programme takes us through different stages of the Virgin Mary's story: Birth, Salutation, the Nativity of Christ, the Passion and the Coronation of the Virgin. Concerto delle Donne reveal ravishing music, helped in part by the Newfoundland-based Charpentier scholar Jane Gosine, who provided most of the music editions and wrote the informative booklet essay. Charpentier composed more than 100 sacred works for women's voices, several of them for the Cistercians at Port Royal in Paris, where the composer's sister was a nun. The Magnificat for Port Royal (edited from the autograph manuscript by Alistair Ross), one of his numerous joyful Nativity compositions, and a simple stophic yet affecting Stabat mater are the most substantial pieces in this superb disc. The shorter motets are gems, too.

Donna Deam, Faye Newton and Gill Ross sing beautifully, with support from six other sopranos in chorally reinforced sections. Their polished vocal blend is complemented by expressive sincerity and stylistic integrity. Ross's accompaniments and solos are exemplary - as one might expect from an experienced keyboard player who has been the backbone of several English Baroque bands. He plays a magnificent organ dating from 1690 at the church of Notre-Dame in Rozay-en-Brie (about 30 miles east of Paris) that Couperin is known to have played. The church's wonderful acoustic is reverberant yet modest, and is perfect for enabling the singers to project effortlessly.

David Vickers

Early Music America, Winter 2006

This very well performed and intelligently programmed recording focuses on the sacred works Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1643-1704) wrote for combinations of women's voices. As might be expected, Marian music dominates, so the program is divided into sections reflecting on the life of the Virgin Mary. Organ music by Nicholas-Antoine Lebégue (1631-1702) and Guillaume-Gabriel Nivers (1632-1714), beautifully played by Alistair Ross on the 1690 organ of the church of Notre Dame in Rozay-en-Brie, as well as a gorgeous Salve Regina attributed to Lully, are sandwiched between the Charpentier works.

There is much stunning music here. The Magnificat, pour le Port Royal is a familiar gem, and it receives a lovely performance, but in some ways it's the smaller-scale works for two or three voices that leave a more lasting impression. For example, there's an exuberant little motet, Guade felix Anna honouring the Virgin's mother, that showcases the Italian style Charpentier absorbed in Rome. Larger in scale is Charpentier's Stabat Mater, which moves the heart with its tender melody and simple design.

The women of Concerto delle Donne - Donna Deam, Faye Newton and Gill Ross - are outstanding. Their voices blend beautifully, and they bring a sense of quiet joy to each note they sing. Alistair Ross does a stellar job with the brief organ works and provides tasteful accompaniment throughout, making this writer hungry for an entire recording of music played on this instrument. There are many subtle beauties on this recording, which is essential for lovers of the most sublime composer of the French Baroque.

Craig Zeichner

MusicWeb

This disc presents a sequence of French music regarding different aspects of the Virgin Mary. It was written for female voices - predominantly nuns - during the second half of the 17th century. The majority of the music featured was written by Charpentier and the recording marks the 300th anniversary of his death in 1704. The music is, I'm ashamed to say, all but unknown to me; apparently Charpentier wrote over one hundred works for women's voices. Here it is beautifully presented, together with works of Lully, Nivers, Lebègue, and interspersed with organ works by the latter pair. It is good to hear these organ works in something of a liturgical, or at least wider musical, context. The London-based keyboard player Alastair Ross plays the remarkable instruments at Rozay, perhaps the best preserved 17th century organ in France, surprisingly little known and restored in 1996 by Yves Cabourdin. The original builder in 1690 is seemingly unknown, or at least the CD booklet doesn't tell us. The virile Pleins Jeux, with its modified 1/5th comma meantone tuning, reminds us of how much Classical French organ building had changed by the time its most famous executants, Dom Bedos, and Francois-Henri Cliquot built their most famous surviving works at Bordeaux and Poitiers respectively. As far as I can tell, Ross uses a second organ, presumably a continuo-organ, for the accompaniment of the singers. If so, this is a shame, as such an instrument would have been completely unknown to Charpentier, and the use of the large organ presents more interesting possibilities in this regard, as well as more key-colour. The singing on the whole is first-rate; excellent blend, intonation, a very musical feeling for expression, and careful diction, despite some very Anglican-sounding Latin from time to time. The three principal sopranos of the Concerto delle Donne are joined by six further sopranos for the works with alternating soloists and choir. For me, everything is perhaps a little too pretty. Of course, one must remember the situation for which the music was created, but I can't help feeling that the approach lacks a certain variety of affekts suggested by the texts. Likewise Ross's organ playing, while very neat and tidy, lacks a little flexibility in the pulse, or at least a feeling for the inherent rhetoric, so essential to bring this literature off the page. These are charming performances of charming music. Warmly recommended.

Chris Bragg

MusicalPointers.co.uk

A wholly delightful sequence of 17C music which would have been given by nuns, trained in singing, at the Convent of Port-Royal and elsewhere.

The soprano voices here carry their considerable expertise unshowily, just right for the descriptions of the time, e.g. "sweet, distinct, articulate, harmonious, touching, moving [listeners] to tears, and at the same time, filling their hearts with joy and consolation."

The famous organ at Rozay-en-Brie has been restored to its 17C glory; it still has its original keys, upon which the Couperins would have played, in playable condition. An illustration on the Rozay-en-Brie website (a painting by an organist) shows that there is a gallery where the singers might have been placed. Whether or not for this recording, the ensemble with Alastair Ross is immaculate.

His own solos punctuate the vocal music ideally, and display the beauties of the historic organ in its perfect acoustical setting. There are motets for two, and three voices and solos for all three. My only disappointment was with the four-square motet "attrib. Lully". Charpentier's daringly simple Stabat Mater, nine minutes long, which holds attention easily through its ten identical verses varied only by the alternation of soloists and supporting choir, is a good one to get to know the three voices of the principal Donne. Then the mood lightens with music to celebrate the Ressurection and the Coronation of the Virgin, ending with a celebratory Plein Jeu by Lebègue which shows the full glory of the Rozay organ.