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| Concerto Vocale | |
|---|---|
| Name | Concerto Vocale |
| Origin | Brussels, Belgium |
| Founded | 1970 |
| Genre | Early music, Baroque |
| Members | Ensemble of vocalists and instrumentalists |
| Notable works | Recordings of Heinrich Schütz, Claudio Monteverdi, Heinrich Isaac |
Concerto Vocale is a European early music ensemble founded in the late 20th century and associated with historically informed performance of Renaissance and Baroque vocal music. The ensemble developed a reputation through performances and recordings that connected repertories of Claudio Monteverdi, Heinrich Schütz, Orlando di Lasso, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina and Heinrich Isaac with contemporary audiences across venues such as the Concertgebouw, Royal Albert Hall, Salle Pleyel and festivals like the Aix-en-Provence Festival and the Salzburg Festival. Its activities intersected with scholars and practitioners from institutions including the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg and the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien.
The ensemble emerged during the early music revival alongside figures from Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Gustav Leonhardt, Ton Koopman, Philippe Herreweghe and Paul McCreesh, reflecting trends from workshops at the Musica Antiqua Köln environment and exchanges with the Early Music Network and the Historic Brass Society. Founding artists trained at the Conservatoire Royal de Bruxelles, the Royal Academy of Music, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the Juilliard School, and collaborated with directors associated with the Monteverdi Choir, the Tallis Scholars, Les Arts Florissants and Hespèrion XXI. Over decades the ensemble performed in circuits involving the Edinburgh Festival, the Biennale di Venezia and the Ravinia Festival, while engaging with research from the Galpin Society and the American Musicological Society.
The ensemble’s approach to texture, vocal registration and continuo practice reflects models promulgated by Jerome Roche, Uri Golomb, Joel Cohen and Christopher Hogwood. Repertoire choices illustrate contrasts between polyphonic techniques exemplified by Josquin des Prez, Heinrich Isaac, Thomas Tallis and William Byrd and the dramatic monody of Claudio Monteverdi and Giovanni Gabrieli. Instrumentation often combines cornetto and sackbut traditions associated with Giovanni Bassano, theorbo and chitarrone practices linked to Baldassare Ferri and Francesco Corbetta, and keyboard continuo work in the lineage of Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, Frescobaldi and Bach-era organists. Interpretive choices align with treatises by Giovanni Maria Artusi, Valentino Agricola and Giacomo Carissimi.
Programming emphasized masses, motets, madrigals and sacred concertos spanning Renaissance and Baroque canons: cycles including Monteverdi’s Vespro della Beata Vergine, Schütz’s Psalmen Davids, Lassus’s Lagrime di San Pietro-related motets, Isaac’s Missa Cantilena settings and Byrd’s Mass for Four Voices. Secular repertory drew on madrigals by Claudio Monteverdi, chansons by Pierre de la Rue, and lamentations by Alfonso Ferrabosco and Orlande de Lassus. The ensemble also revived lesser-known works by Heinrich Schütz colleagues such as Steffani, Merula, Schütz’s contemporaries and composers from the Flemish school linked to Philippe de Monte and Adrian Willaert.
Performances and collaborations connected the ensemble with composers and groups including Claudio Monteverdi, Heinrich Schütz, Orlando di Lasso, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, William Byrd, and contemporaneous ensembles like Les Arts Florissants, The Sixteen, La Petite Bande, Il Giardino Armonico, Música Antigua and Concentus Musicus Wien. Research links involved scholars from Oxford University, Cambridge University, Harvard University and the University of Oxford Faculty of Music, with editorial input referencing editions from Breitkopf & Härtel, Bärenreiter, Henle Verlag and the American Institute of Musicology.
Interpretive strategies adopted principles from historically informed performance advocated by Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Gustav Leonhardt, John Eliot Gardiner, Christopher Hogwood and Philippe Herreweghe. Emphasis was placed on pitch standards (A=415 Hz versus A=440 Hz), ornamentation informed by sources such as Agricola and Fabio Colonna, and rhythmic realizations discussed in treatises by Zarlino, Praetorius, Caccini and Jakob Adlung. Vocal ensemble technique referenced approaches developed by Andreas Scholl, Emma Kirkby, James Bowman and Paul Agnew, while instrumentalists consulted reconstruction practices associated with Curt Sachs, Francis Galpin and makers from the Renaissance instrument revival.
The ensemble issued recordings on labels tied to the early music discography, appearing alongside catalogs from Harmonia Mundi, Archiv Produktion, Deutsche Grammophon, Glossa Music and Philips Classics. Critical reception was documented in periodicals such as The Gramophone, BBC Music Magazine, Early Music and the New York Times arts pages, with scholarly reviews in Grove Music Online-related essays and conference proceedings of the International Musicological Society. Touring and broadcasts reached networks including BBC Radio 3, Radio France, Deutsche Welle and Rai Radio 3, influencing later ensembles and pedagogues connected to institutions like the Royal College of Music and the Conservatoire de Paris.