This year’s Salzburg Whitsun Festival celebrates Venice, showcasing music from the past five centuries with ties to the city – whether premiered there, composed for Venetian occasions or inspired by the allure of the lagoon. The concert at the Stiftung Mozarteum focused on Claudio Monteverdi, who served as maestro di cappella at St Mark’s Basilica for many years, featuring his Vespro per la Beata Vergine, published in Venice in 1610.
The Vespers was preceded by two contemporary a cappella works for double choir by Bruno Mantovani, based on Rainer Maria Rilke’s Venetian-themed poems Venetianischer Morgen and Spätsherbst in Venedig. Mantovani’s modern musical language blends diverse influences, weaving hisses, clicks and melodic fragments reminiscent of Gregorian chant, distorted into sharp dissonances. Rilke’s words emerge at times in clear song or speech, at others in whispers dissolved into the music. The result is strikingly atmospheric yet unsettling.
Monteverdi’s Vespers incorporates diverse musical forms: hymns and psalms in traditional polyphonic style, often arranged for divided choirs, alongside motets for soloists – ranging from one to seven voices – interspersed between these larger sections. In the motets, Monteverdi employs his innovative recitar cantando technique, with soloists adopting the operatic recitative style he pioneered. The exact purpose of this collection remains unclear, as it includes neither a complete liturgical Vespers service nor hymns and psalms intended for a single Marian feast. Nevertheless, the work stands as a landmark in the evolution from Renaissance to Baroque music.
Under the direction of Gianluca Capuano, Les Musiciens du Prince and the chorus Il Canto d’Orfeo delivered a sumptuous, richly textured interpretation. The ensemble performed with remarkable precision and flawless intonation, each musician demonstrating soloist-level mastery while maintaining impeccable cohesion. The result was anything but the austere or detached sound often associated with historically informed performances; this was music brimming with vitality.
In such a uniformly outstanding performance, it’s hard to single out highlights. The performance opened with the triumphant fanfare from L’Orfeo, the chorus and orchestra bursting forth in a radiant explosion of joy. Monteverdi’s score grants considerable freedom to the performers, and the singers excelled in their ornamentation – particularly, though not exclusively, in the solo passages. The motet Duo Seraphim became a thrilling contest of virtuosity, with three male voices trading embellishments like bel canto prima donnas. Equally enchanting were the echo effects: when Monteverdi calls for mirrored phrases between voices or instruments, the responding lines floated in from backstage through an open door, creating a magical spatial illusion. The concert culminated in a truly remarkable Magnificat, building in intensity toward its final fugue on the “Amen”, so electrifying that the ensemble reprised it as an encore.
Every musician demonstrated a profound grasp of Monteverdi’s style; cornetts and trombones thundered with exhilarating power, while the trio of theorbos wove an enchanting continuo. Under Capuano’s bold and perhaps unconventional vision, the music surged with virile energy and mystical depth. The result was nothing short of magnificent, a performance that radiated sacred grandeur, leaving the audience spellbound in its wake.
