Reid Consort: Lagrime
St Vincent’s Chapel
Orlande de Lassus was born in Mons in Flanders about 1530. He was probably bilingual in French and Dutch, spent a large part of his early life in Italy but eventually, in1556, he moved to the court of Albrecht V, Duke of Bavaria. By 1563, he had been appointed Maestro di Capella in Munich, and remained there until his death in 1594.
He travelled widely throughout Europe and became enormously famous and influential, working for numerous noble families. His fame as a singer started early, as there are stories of him being kidnapped in Flanders for the beauty of his boy soprano voice. He kept the quality of his voice as an adult and worked first in Italy as a singer. However his prowess as a composer led him to become Maestro di Capella at St John Lateran in Rome, under the protection of Cosimo 1, Duke of Tuscany, at the extraordinarily young age of 21. Further travels, possibly to England, France and Flanders, finally led to his long stay in Munich, where he lived out his remaining years as a valuable asset to Albrecht and his successor, Wilhelm V. Composers from all over Europe came to Munich to study with Lassus, and he himself frequently visited Italy, where he discovered all the new developments in music at this critical turning point in Western history.
His own style remained quite conservative over the years, but the influence of modern techniques, particularly those of the Gabrielis, who both studied with him, must have had an effect. In a way, his style became simpler and more refined as he grew older, perhaps in conscious reaction to the new sounds.
His last great work, the Lagrime di San Pietro, demonstrates the culmination of his style, and is the crowning glory of his life. He dedicated it to Pope Clement V111 on May 24th 1594, three weeks before his death, and it was published posthumously the following year in Munich. It consists of 20 sacred madrigals to words by Luigi Tansillo and one Latin motet, and depicts the stages of grief suffered by Saint Peter after his denial of Christ and his memory of Jesus’ admonition.
Numerical symbolism is central to the piece. It is set for seven voices, representing the seven sorrows of the Virgin Mary. Many of the madrigals are in seven sections and the total number of pieces in the work, 21, represents seven times the number of the trinity. Lassus only uses seven of the eight church modes in his setting, and the final motet uses the Tonus Peregrinus which is entirely outside the Renaissance scheme of 8 church modes. The absence of the eighth mode suggests the imperfection of the world through Peter’s betrayal, and this is made clear in the final motet, where Christ speaks movingly of that betrayal, and indeed the sinfulness of all mankind.
This performance, in front of a small but attentive audience, was a revelation for those of us who thought we had heard most of the great Renaissance masterpieces. Lasting almost exactly an hour, Lassus charts the stages of St Peter’s grief, through the very human responses of guilt and shame.
The Reid Consort was particularly unlucky to lose two members through illness just before the concert since their original numbers for a 7 part piece would only have been 12. Reduced to 10, they were severely restricted in the sonority they needed, especially as they had to sing uninterrupted for 60 minutes, a feat that fully professional singers would dread, let alone young voices. My advice for future performances would be always to use at least 2 voices to a part, for, understandably, some of the singers were beginning to tire towards the end.
Nonetheless, despite this, the performance was a success, and we were held spellbound throughout. The Consort’s Italian was fine, and we were able to follow the somewhat weird words in the handy translation provided. Lassus set the words very naturally, with little or no repetition, and the chapel’s acoustic was perfect for such a piece, with a little bloom but not too much reverberation. I must single out the 3 sopranos for a special mention, as their voices soared beautifully over the whole consort throughout the evening.
Cole Bendall’s direction was very impressive, keeping the music flowing but allowing enough room for the individual parts to come through clearly. He paced the 21 sections well, and the final 2 movements, especially the final Latin motet, brought the concert to a moving and poignant conclusion.
