Vivaldi: Vespers for San Marco 2023

Concert

Vivaldi: Vespers for San Marco

Cast

Presentation

Homepage Vivaldi: Vespers for San Marco 2023

Cast

Mariana Flores Soprano

Sophie Junker Soprano

Dara Savinova Alto

Valerio Contaldo Tenor

Alejandro Meerapfel Baritone

Chœur de Chambre de Namur

Millenium Orchestra

Cappella Mediterranea

Leonardo García Alarcón Conductor

Presentation

Born in Venice in 1678, Antonio Vivaldi learned to play the violin from his father, who was appointed violinist at St Mark’s Basilica in 1685. Little Antonio, a precocious pupil, was soon admitted to the Doge’s Chapel with his father. It was thus under the mosaics of the domes of St Mark’s Basilica that he made his first steps as an instrumentalist. This gave him the opportunity to become acquainted with the most sumptuous liturgy in Venice at an early age. Throughout his rich operatic career, and in parallel with his position as composer and conductor of the Ospedale della Pieta, Vivaldi composed a great deal of sacred music, the destination of which is not specified: but the reputation of the Red Priest certainly carried his scores to San Marco…

He wrote several Motets for the Office of Vespers, which was one of the most important in Venice, and for which Monteverdi left the first musical masterpiece. Some of these works are traditionally bravura pieces, such as the Dixit Dominus and the Magnificat, in which Vivaldi deploys inventiveness, virtuosity and monumentality: their performers must have been the best in Venice. The organisation of the motets presented here reconstitutes a Vespers service as Vivaldi might have presented it in San Marco, for the feast of Saint Mark, the patron saint of Venice: the sumptuousness of Venetian ceremonies can be heard with force, in the echo of the vaults and domes of the basilica, and its precious marble and golden mosaics. Leonardo García Alarcón recaptures this flamboyance in an extraordinary reconstruction, whose festive dimension is in keeping with the Serenissima…

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