Glorious Mysteries of the Blessed Virgin. Works by Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583-1643)Tarquinius Merula (v. 1595-1665)Maurizio Cazzati (1616-1678)Giovanni Legrenzi (1626-1690)Giovanni Andrea Florimi (?-1683)Fra Giovanni Battista Fasolo (1600-1664)Giovanni-Baptista Riccio (?-1621)Alessandro Grandi (1586-1630)Gian Paolo Cima (1570-1622)Orazio Tarditi (1602-1677)Arcangelo Crotti (1550-1606)Giovanni-Maria Trabacci (v.1575-1647) and anonymous. Kirsten Witmer, soprano; La Fenice aVenire, direction Jean Tubéry. 2020/21. Instructions in French and English. 57.49. A Labellafenice LBF 2001 book-disc.
This new label is consistent with the birth of a new formation. After thirty years with La Fenice, multiple regularly rewarded recordings and a long experience of teaching, the Toulousain Jean Tubéry (°1964), player of cornetto and recorder and choir director, decided, as an introductory text, to put his experience at the service of young talented musicians, crossed among his master-classes and annual academies (Brussels, Lanvellec, Pigna…) as well as in the national and higher conservatories where he now teaches, that is to say in Paris, Lyon and Toulouse. A new set, which emanates from La Fenice, was therefore born with a meaningful title: La Fenice aVenire, with a distinctive logo that will mark future activities.
To celebrate the event, the small dishes were put in the big ones: the music lover holds in his hands a book-disc in oblong format (15 x 21 cm), printed on a beautiful paper, richly and abundantly illustrated in colors, with accompanying texts, signed by Jean Tubéry himself, but also by Marie Lerbret, an associate professor of philosophy and musician, who examines the term “mystery” and refers to Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) and his Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, and by Brother Benoit Jourdain who evokes “the Prayer of the Rosary and its mysteries”. These pages should be read before hearing, the last author quoted deepening the devotion to the Virgin Mary in the liturgy of the Latin Mass, and the appearance, at the end of the 15th century, of three cycles of “mysteries” or miraculous events in the life of Mary and Jesus Christ. The last cycle of the Mysteries pays homage to eternal life (Resurrection and Ascension, Pentecost of the Holy Spirit, Assumption and Coronation of the Virgin) and was chosen for the feast day of the Rosary, celebrated on October 7 in the liturgical calendar. Roman.
For his part, Jean Tubéry specifies that the music of this book-disc falls within the framework of the office of lauds of the “Feast of the Rosary”, in an artistic and intellectual line of conduct that goes beyond the hypothetical acceptance of the term “reconstruction”. He adds that what we hear (vocal airs in plainsong or in concerto style, instrumental pieces from an ensemble or church organ solo) might have been the subject of a meeting at the same time. and in the same place of worship. It remains to explain why the date of October 7 was chosen. A long historical description recalls the context of the battle of Lepanto in October 1571, during which, in a few hours, the Ottoman fleet was destroyed on the western coast of Greece by that of the Holy League, which included Venetian ships. and Spanish, but also Genoese, Maltese or Pontifical. Pope Pius V, on whose flagship floated the motto Saint Mary help of the destitutedecreed that the intercession of the Virgin had been decisive and his successor, Gregory XIII, established for the following October 7 the feast of the Rosary in order to recall the glorious victory.
The result of this Marian program is an hour of pure vocal and instrumental beauty. After an introduction where the bells ring, the pieces follow one another: Gregorian chant, extracts from antiphonaries, pages for organ or harpsichord, sonata a quattro, sonata a tre, voice supported by two flutes, sonata… successively weave the Introit, the different Lauds which evoke the five Mysteries listed before the capitulum and the final hymn. In his presentation, Brother Benoit Jourdain recalls that through these compositions chosen from the Italian Baroque and whose luminosity is the primary quality, it is the mysteries of glory which bring Christian joy to its paroxysm, and that the divine glory in question is reverberated to us as the absolute victory of divine love over all suffering and all death. One cannot preferentially detach one or the other page among those which highlight in this context more than ten composers of the time, of which certain names are known, others much less. In any case, we quickly let ourselves be charmed and bewitched by this captivating liturgical atmosphere which pulls the listener “upwards”, thanks to quality interpreters. Among them, Korean-American soprano Kristen Witmer, who was born and raised in Japan, where she studied singing in Tokyo, reveals a voice of infinite delicacy and touching devotional fervor.
The whole route is visually very beautiful and gives the music lover, we repeat, an hour of aesthetic happiness. The recordings took place in two phases: the vocal and instrumental ensemble pieces were made in Vézelay in November 2020, while the organ solos (a Bernard Boulay from 2011) and harpsichord (a Thomas Griewich from 2011 also ) were engraved by Mathieu Valfré in April 2021 in the Saint-Cybard church in Pranzac, in Charente. Fanny Châtelain and Jean Tubéry take care of the plainsong, the latter also playing the cornet for Merula, Cazzati, Legrenzi, Florimi, Cima and Crotti, and the recorder for the two-flute song de Riccio (with Sarah Dubus, his cornet partner for four more pages). We will also mention the baroque violins of Sue-Ying Koang and Anaëlle Blanc-Verdin, the baroque cello of Jean-Baptiste Valfré, and finally Ulrik-Gaston Larsen on theorbo and archlute.
The text of all the vocal pieces in Latin, with translation into French and English, appears at the end of this beautiful object, embellished with color reproductions of paintings by Greco (1541-1614) and poems by Francis Jammes (1868-1938). ). Add to this photographs of the performers and the organ of Pranzac, and, when it comes to the battle, the vision of theAllegory of the Battle of Lepanto, painting produced in 1572 by Paolo Veronese, with the canvas divided into two parts, the lower symbolizing the ardor of naval combat, the upper dominated by the Madonna of the Rosary, with a typically Venetian angelic concert. This production of the new Labella fenice label is to be marked with a white stone: the choice of vocal and instrumental pieces, the musical realization and the magnificent object that this book-disc represents deserve all the praise.
Sound: 10 Record: 10 Repertoire: 10 Interpretation: 10
John Lacroix
