Piazza San Marco by Canaletto, ca. late 1720s. Rosenmüller spent time in Venice studying and composing
Rosenmüller Vespers
VOICES & INSTRUMENTS
Tutor: James Weekes
Location: St Andrew’s Westland, Newcastle-under-Lyme
Reviewer: Mark Flinn
A group of some 33 singers and instrumentalists gathered at St Andrew’s Westland, in Newcastle under Lyme, to work at Vespers movements by Johann Rosenmüller. We were inspirationally and energetically led by James Weeks, and were doubly fortunate in having the legendary Clifford Bartlett on continuo. Our band of ten players also included violins, theorbo, sackbutts, cornett, curtal and bass viol, and we had a balanced choir of 23 singers. This was a joint event supported by both NWEMF and MEMF, and participants had travelled from as far as Cumbria, Gloucester, Leicester, Huntingdon and (in James’s case) Newcastle on Tyne, to take part in the event.
Johann Rosenmüller (1619-94) was a student and organist in Leipzig, but moved to Venice, where he worked at San Marco and the Ospedale for much of his career. He wrote many psalm settings in a style with elements of Monteverdi and the German Baroque, and in recent years various of these psalms have been brought together to form Vespers settings. We studied psalms from the 2001 Kings Music edition settings of Laudate Pueri, Lauda Jerusalem and Nisi Dominus. While never overstaying their welcome, each psalm lasted over ten minutes and had shorter sections of instrumental ritornello alongside quite lengthy choral sections of sometimes less familiar Latin text. The music is expansive, often grand, and immensely singable and playable: we all went away at the end of the day wanting more.
During a talk at Dartington last year, James had noted that the piece would make a wonderful BBC Prom concert, and the Royal Albert Hall would provide a great performance space for this glorious music. It certainly would.
Resources and time did not allow us to tackle other Rosenmüller psalm settings such as Dixit Dominus, with substantial solo passages and double choir. With bigger forces and some more preparation, we might consider this in the future.
Thanks again to James for leading such a special day, and to Clifford for providing the music parts and his continuo playing.
Mark Flinn
First published in April 2014 Newsletter
