Cover image: Stephen Stubbs, conductor (Photo: Pacific MusicWorks)
Claudio Monteverdi was appointed Maestro di Cappella at the Cathedral of San Marco in Venice in 1613 and he stayed there, filling the cathedral with one after another of his glorious compositions, until his death in 1643.
St James Cathedral has a very similar ambience to its Venetian counterpart, and here on Saturday night, Pacific MusicWorks gave a performance of Monteverdi’s music from those 30 years, which the composer published in 1641 under the title “Selva Morale e Spirituale” (“Moral and Spiritual Forest”). For this concert, PMW gathered a group of eight top early music singers from around North America, accompanied by members of the Pacific MusicWorks baroque orchestra—Tekla Cunningham, violin; Henry Lebedinsky, organ and harpsichord; Maxine Eilander, harp and PMW director and mastermind Stephen Stubbs, chitarrone (great bass lute), plus Toma Iliev, violin, and David Morris, cello and lirone (something like a viola da gamba but with many more strings).
While these forces were perhaps smaller than might have pertained in San Marco, they nevertheless created a wonderfully satisfying concert for a large audience on a very wet night.
Stubbs chose some works for the entire group of singers, often antiphonally, with either high voices juxtaposed with low ones or a solo voice followed by a response, and some superbly rich choral works for which he laid down his lute and conducted, such as the “Dixit Dominus” which ended the first half.
Members of the Pacific MusicWorks baroque orchestra with countertenor Reginald Mobley (center) and other soloists at St. James (Photo: Pacific MusicWorks)
He varied the choices by having contrasting singers as soloists in contrasting works, all of whom acted as chorus when not singing solo. Thus the clarion high soprano voice of Teresa Wakim soared throughout a joyous “Confitebor tibi Domine” (“I will praise the Lord”) each verse of the psalm repeated by the chorus. This was followed by the contemplative “Ego flos campi” (“I am the Rose of Sharon”) sung in the gentle and serene voice of countertenor Reginald Mobley. The two tenors, Ross Hauck and Thomas Segen, sang in expressive duet the beautiful prayer “Salve Regina,” and one of the several highlights of the concert came with soprano Danielle Sampson in “Il Pianto della Madonna” (“Lament of the Madonna”) in which she brought out the sorrow and anguish portrayed in an extremely moving performance. Mobley directed the tenors, baritone Zachary Lenox and himself in the solemn “Crucifixus” which was immediately followed by an uplifting “Et resurrexit” from the two sopranos and the two violins.
All of this created constant variety and interest in a program of sacred music all by the same composer, albeit one of the greatest of his era. The performance ended with all the forces in a “Gloria in excelsis Deo” which was truly glorious.
