Monteverdi | Carissimi | Scarlatti | Purcell by Purcell, Monteverdi, Scarlatti, D., Carissimi, De la (2022/2022), Dirijor John Eliot Gardiner, Lingotto, Turin, Italy

In November 2022, the Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists and John Eliot Gardiner performed a programme of Baroque choral masterpieces at iconic venues in Northern Italy. Programme: Purcell Jehova, quam multi sunt hostes Monteverdi Messa a 4 voci da cappella D. Scarlatti Stabat mater Purcell Hear my prayer, O Lord Carissimi Jephte Three Italian choral masterpieces showcase the virtuosity of the Monteverdi Choir, and highlight the changing musical styles in Italy in the 17th and early 18th centuries. Monteverdi’s final setting of the mass, written while he was maestro di cappella of St Mark’s in Venice in the first half of the 17th century, mixes the older polyphonic style with more declamatory passages. Carissimi’s Jephte, a miniature sacred musical drama written in the middle of the 17th century, uses an almost operatic style of solo writing alongside meltingly beautiful choruses to tell the Old Testament story of Jephtha, the Israelite leader forced to sacrifice his own daughter. Domenico Scarlatti’s 10-voice Stabat mater, composed in the early years of the 18th century, combines the old-fashioned polyphonic choral style with a passionate rhetoric, in a graphic depiction of Christ’s crucifixion with all the intensity of a Bernini sculpture or a Caravaggio tableau. Two pieces by Purcell reveal Italianate influence on the English composer: in the 8-voice Hear my prayer, O Lord the harmonies become ever more extraordinary in a crescendo of supplication to God; while Jehova, quam multi sunt hostes (an exceptional setting of a Latin text in Purcell’s oeuvre) features an almost Monteverdian declamatory style.