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VSPRS album cover

Album guide

VSPRS

Fabrizio Cassol

Composer
Monteverdi
Released
2006
Label
Cypres
Forces
Saxophone, Vocal, Violin
Personnel
Fabrizio Cassol alto saxophone; Aka Moon, with Michel Hatzigeorgiou bass and Stéphane Galland drums; Oltremontano directed by Wim Becu; Tcha Limberger violin; Claron McFadden and Cristina Zavalloni voice

VSPRS began as the score for Alain Platel’s 2006 dance work inspired by Monteverdi’s Vespro della Beata Vergine. Fabrizio Cassol developed the music alongside the choreography, allowing the movements of the dancers and the musicians’ improvisations to shape one another during rehearsals.

Aka Moon’s jazz language meets the cornetts and sackbuts of the early-music ensemble Oltremontano, together with Romani violin and voices. Monteverdi supplies the architecture, but Cassol freely changes the order and opens spaces within it for Baroque, jazz and Romani traditions to mingle.

Hear both

The classical side contains only the source pieces used on the album, in album order. The jazz side presents the complete album whenever a dependable copy can be embedded.

The originalsMonteverdi · classical source works

The classical player has eleven video entries for eleven of the album’s fourteen tracks: Ouverture and Sonata both use the Vespers’ Sonata sopra Sancta Maria; Peace Prayer & Gregorian and Antiphona Rosalba have no recording because their chants could not be identified, while Dance Hyo Seung is a Romanian traditional tune rather than a classical source.

Jazzed upFabrizio Cassol · 2006
Open full album in Spotify

Spotify’s player is here for convenience; the full track listing below remains available to everyone.

Source works

The album’s complete track listing, with each classical source identified and original compositions marked plainly.

  1. OuvertureVespro della Beata Vergine (1610): Sonata sopra ‘Sancta Maria, ora pro nobis’
  2. Audi caelumVespro della Beata Vergine (1610): Concerto ‘Audi coelum’
  3. Duo SeraphimVespro della Beata Vergine (1610): Concerto ‘Duo Seraphim’
  4. Pulchra esVespro della Beata Vergine (1610): Concerto ‘Pulchra es’
  5. Nigra sumVespro della Beata Vergine (1610): Concerto ‘Nigra sum’
  6. Peace Prayer & GregorianUnidentified source
  7. Ave maris stellaVespro della Beata Vergine (1610): Hymn ‘Ave maris stella’
  8. Antiphona RosalbaUnidentified source
  9. SonataVespro della Beata Vergine (1610): Sonata sopra ‘Sancta Maria, ora pro nobis’
  10. Dance Hyo SeungNon-classical source
  11. Laetatus sumVespro della Beata Vergine (1610): Psalm 121, ‘Laetatus sum’
  12. MagnificatVespro della Beata Vergine (1610): Magnificat a 7: ‘Magnificat’
  13. Et misericordiaVespro della Beata Vergine (1610): Magnificat a 7: ‘Et misericordia’
  14. Gloria PatriVespro della Beata Vergine (1610): Magnificat a 7: ‘Gloria Patri’