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EARLY MUSIC REVIEW
December 16, 2004
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By Anna Carol Dudley
In the early 17th century, when Monteverdi was maestro di capella at St. Mark's in Venice, Giovanni Rovetta was also widely
admired as an outstanding performer and composer at St. Mark's. Who knew? Warren Stewart knew. He prepared a concert of Rovetta's
music and directed his ensemble, Magnificat, in a performance thereof Saturday night presented by the San Francisco Early Music
Society at the First Congregational Church of Berkeley.
Rovetta's Magnificat and Psalm settings — sung one to a part by a stellar cast of seven soloists — showed him
indeed to be a composer of the first rank. The writing was expressive of text, rhythmically varied and often virtuosic. The scoring
was inventive, ranging from solo bits to full six- and seven-part choruses, with various smaller combinations of voices in between.
The concert took the form of a Vespers service for Christmas, complete with chanted antiphons, responses and prayers. Bass Hugh
Davies was the celebrant, leading off the chanting and joined by others in unison. His voice, strong, expressive and flexible in
solo passages, anchored the ensemble singing. Tenor Scott Whitaker, as deacon, also provided a sure lead in chanting and ensemble
singing.
The psalm Beatus vir (Blessed is he) was an especially lovely piece, beautifully sung. It featured some brilliant duetting
by tenors Whitaker and Wolodymyr Smishkewych and clear, sweet solo singing of the alto part by haute-contre Daniel
Hutchings.
Another standout was the Magnificat. Sopranos Catherine Webster and Jennifer Ellis are a great team, masters of florid singing, so flawless in intonation that dissonant cadences have great expressive power. Ellis especially is a dynamo of energy and potent sound. Rovetta wrote a wonderful buildup from voice to voice in the "Deposuit" (He hath put down the mighty), and the final lines were impressive, starting with the sopranos and bringing everybody in on a grand "Amen." As antiphon before the Magnificat, a solo "Cantate Domino" (Sing to the Lord) by Rovetta's colleague Pier Francesco Cavalli was given a spirited performance by Webster. Baritone Tim Krol was the seventh splendid singer. In addition to accompanying the singers, five instrumentalists played with great panache between the psalms, performing sonatas by Rovetta, Cavalli and another colleague, Massimiliano Neri. Violinists Rob Diggins and Jolianne von Einem and gambist John Dornenburg matched the singers in virtuosity; organist Hanneke van Proosdij and theorbist David Tayler were the solid continuo. Before the Vespers service, after a couple of anachronistic announcements about cell phones and a car parked with its lights on, Stewart asked the audience to refrain from applause until the service was over. The large audience expressed its approval with enthusiasm when the time came.
(Anna Carol Dudley is a singer, teacher, member of the faculties of the University of California, Berkeley, and San Francisco State
University [lecturer emerita] and director emerita of the San Francisco Early Music Society's Baroque Music Workshop.)
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Jennifer Ellis
Hugh Davies