VESPRO DELLA BEATA VERGINE • Konrad Junghänel, dir; Cantus Cölln; Concerto Palatino • HARMONIA MUNDI 902001 (69: 21 Text and Translation)

V. MAZZOCCHI Vespers Psalms. Beata mater. Surge amica mea. CARISSIMI Exurge cor meum. O dulcissimum Mariae nomen. Salve regina. FRESCOBALDI Canzona. PALESTRINA Ave maris stella

Virgilio Mazzocchi (1597–1646) was the younger brother of Domenico, who long outlived him, but he surpassed his brother in his lifetime, becoming maestro at St. Peter’s in Rome from 1629 until his death. Yet today his music can be heard only in a Stephen Stubbs program (“Vanitas Vanitatum: Rome 1650”) that I can’t find reviewed here, while Domenico has whole discs of his own (15:2 and 31: 2). More than two-thirds of this program is devoted to Virgilio’s psalms and canticle, along with two of his earlier motets, but the review cannot appear under his name because short works of three other composers are added to fill out the Office of Vespers. Two of them are his contemporaries, while Palestrina was his predecessor at St. Peter’s. Indeed, Frescobaldi was his organist there. The psalms and canticle are less than half of the contents of Virgilio’s published book, which included 12 psalms and two settings of the Magnificat, all for double choir, to furnish enough music for the varied selection of psalms that Vespers required on different feast days. The period is the mid 17th century, as the booklet correctly notes in French (the English and German translations make it 18th century), when the Roman school consisted of a large number of composers who have since not been regarded as highly as their Renaissance predecessors. Yet it is interesting to look back at the way these composers drew on varied resources, not least from their Venetian contemporaries, to produce a distinctive body of church music, even if it has not endured even in Rome.

The stile nuovo writing gives the soloists many opportunities, while the instruments are kept busy, notably the cornet and trombones of Concerto Palatino. All acquit themselves elegantly. Virgilio would have been proud to hear his music executed so splendidly in his own time. This is a fine program to represent the Roman school of liturgical music.

FANFARE: J. F. Weber