INTERNATIONAL RECORD REVIEW:
This isn’t your run-of-the-mill recording of an early seventeenth century motet collection. Instead of merely accepting the music at face value, as originally published, we are invited to make a leap of faith and enter the cloistered world of an Italian convent and imagine the performances are given by an ensemble of nuns. This approach is inspired by the original dedicatee of the Motetti a cinque voci (1614): the well-connected Margherita Gonzaga d’Este, widow of Alfonso II d’Este and a great lover and patroness of the arts. When her husband died she returned to Mantua, her birthplace, and in 1599 founded the Clarissan convent of Sant’Orsola, to which she retired. Sensibly, she never took holy vows herself, which meant she enjoyed extra worldly privileges and successfully petitioned the Pope to allow the singing of polyphony at the convent.

Whether the music of Alessandro Grandi’s third book of motets was ever actually heard at Sant’Orsola is unknown, but what is certain is that the motets could not have been performed in their published form for a mixed ensemble of high and low (male ) voices. The directors of Musica Secreta make a perfectly valid case for transposing and arranging the music to suit an all-female ensemble plus a continuo group of harp, lute and organ: such pragmatic adaptation was part and parcel of musical life at the time. My only reservations really are where a couple of the motets have been transposed up a fourth and sound very high, especially Versa est in luctum cithara mea, which has too bright a sonority for a funeral motet. Full details of all the changes made to each piece are meticulously detailed in the accompanying booklet.

The performances here would surely have delighted Margherita, not only in their technical accomplishment but also in their self-effacing modesty. Though the texts are beautifully expressed, the approach is not a strongly rhetorical one. In the highly wrought Amina mea liquefacta (My soul is melted), the contrasts of mood and sonority are handled with the utmost refinement. Here, as elsewhere, there’s a strong metrical pulse to the performances, which sometimes could have been relaxed a fraction to considerable expressive advantage.

We are also treated to six bonus tracks which Musica Secreta uses in its theatre piece Fallen, based on the life of a young nun in Ferrara. Wert’s motet Vox in Rama audita est (1581) is hauntingly sung by Catherine King, with the three other voice parts taken by harp, lute and organ. Overall, this is beautifully refined music-making – sonorous, soulful and sincere.
Simon Heighes

KLASSIK.COM:
It is an error of modern times to treat music written in the distant past as sacrosanct in all its parameters. Certainly the basic musical dimensions are indeed fixed – but this still leaves much room for development in the execution. Very different variations and treatments of a work can be equally valid provided that they are executed in each case with the necessary care and expertise.

Since 1990 the group ‘Musica Secreta’, made up exclusively of female voices, has been engaged in discovering the role of women in early modern music. In this it is on the one hand concerned with the relatively rare compositions by women, but also on the other with the treatment of works for different ensembles. The theoretical and musical derivation and foundation are persuasive, reflecting the continual search for the probable and the possible.

This recording shows that a carefully chosen repertoire certainly makes this approach accessible. The collection with motets for five voices by Alessandro Grandi (1577-1630), who was later to become deputy chapelmaster to Claudio Monteverdi, and subsequently active for many years in Bergamo, published in 1614, and subsequently republished many times, presents the state of music at the beginning of the 17 th century : technically, aesthetically and tonally many-faceted, and reflecting the major change which marked the era, Grandi comes across as a powerful composer. This extensive CD is completed by recordings which originated in Celestial Sirens’ multimedia project “Fallen” [Traps], and, among others, with works by Josquin des Prez and Giaches de Wert.

‘Musica Secreta' bring together with the sopranos Deborah Roberts, Tessa Bonner and Katharine Hewitt, the Mezzosoprano Catherine King and the Alto Carline Trevor as profiled soloists, whose voices truly blend together to create a genuine ensemble sound. Strong and precise, the additional voices impact on the overall tone, with all the voices intoning brilliantly and articulating together. The compositions are precisely arranged, and are presented in such a way as to display their numerous strong points. All in all the ensemble achieves a high level of vocal technique, matched by the superbly arranged ornaments. In the absence of a bass register, which the piece really needs, the accompanying organ, chitarrones and harp support the vocals in the lower registers.

The result is a lively and full value interpretation, showing no weakness in comparison to the original mixed voice conception in terms of the effectiveness of the piece. With careful transposition, and the instruments filling the bass parts, this altogether succeeds as a convincing interpretation.
Matthias Lange

NEW CLASSICS:
Alessandro Grandi (1586-1630) was one of the most inventive, influential and popular composers of the early Baroque era, probably second only to Monteverdi in northern Italy. He was born in Ferrara and after studying with Giovanni Gabrieli at Venice held several posts in Ferrara as maestro di cappella at various cathedrals and academies. In 1617 he won a post at St. Mark’s in Venice, during the time Monteverdi was choirmaster there. Eventually he became Monteverdi’s assistant, and during this time seems to have chosen to write works in some of the smaller forms which Monteverdi was neglecting. Most of Grandi’s compositions are motets in the concertato style: some are duets and trios, an innovation in motet writing, which usually involved larger groups. He ceaselessly innovated, writing monodies with instruments such as violins, and his music links the concertato style which began the Baroque era with the form of the cantata which culminated in the work of J.S. Bach.

Although considered one of the finest composers of his day, Alessandro Grandi’s music is little known. This premiere recording of his 16 Motets for Five Voices, published in Ferrara in 1614, is very welcome. Musica Secreta is an all-female vocal group formed in 1990 to perform and record ‘music associated with women in the early modern period’, so these motets are performed as they might have been sung by a convent choir or the concerto di dame that flourished in Ferrara at that time. The CD also includes musical excerpts from the soundtrack of the intriguing film/live/multimedia work ‘Fallen’, a collaboration between Musica Secreta and the Hampshire-based playwright Fiona Mackie.
Un-named reviewer

GRAMOPHONE:
Like the fools in the poem by Goldsmith, I came to scoff and remain’d – well, not to pray, but certainly to admire. Alessandro Grandi was appointed deputy to Monteverdi at St. Mark’s in Venice in 1620, having joined the choir three years earlier. However, these motets were published in 1614, when Grandi was still a maestro di cappella in Ferrara. They are scored, in five parts, for the usual mixed voices. Musica Secreta is an all-female group; I don’t see the point of, for instance, a soprano singing Winterreise, hence the scoffing.

But actually it works very well, the tenor and bass parts transposed up an octave and a continuo group providing firm support. Less successful are the two motets transposed up a fourth, where a slight sense of strain is apparent. Like Monteverdi, Grandi faces both ways: backwards with counterpoint, forwards with monody. Several motets start with solo voice and continuo, the other parts joining later.

Whether singing solo or as an ensemble, the ladies of Musica Secreta sound beautiful, the bright sopranos of Deborah Roberts and Tessa Bonner complemented by the throaty alto of Caroline Trevor. One of the most appealing motets is “Quo rubicunda rosa”, which begins with a duet and becomes quite Venetian in its antiphonal exchanges.

To be honest, the overall effect is bland. Grandi;s melodies fall easily on the ear, but all too rarely are they spiked with chromaticism, “Versa est in luctum” being an exception. In some of the pieces by other composers, the ensemble is joined by the eight-strong Celestial Sirens. The variety of texture is welcome, though the most moving singing comes from Catherine King in “Vox in Rama”, done as a solo with instruments. The booklet is badly laid out. An enterprising disc all the same, well worth hearing.
Richard Lawrence

THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY:
An ensemble of female singers with a mixed-sex continuo team of organ, harp and chitarrone, Musica Secreta has driven the vogue for music written by or for the female musicians of 17th- century Venice and Ferrara. In this recording of Alessandro Grandi's five-part motets, they extend their repertoire, presenting arrangements after those of the nuns of the Clarissan convent of Sant'Orsola, Mantua. With tenor or bass lines transposed up an octave or replaced by the instruments, the effect is a little like being caught in a rugby scrum of enthusiastic angels. Yet the singing is never less than vivacious and artful.
Anna Picard

THE GUARDIAN:
Musica Secreta is an all-female vocal group formed in 1990 specifically to perform and record "music associated with women in the early modern period" - not just works by women composers, it seems, but also works that were established by women's performances. So this collection of 16 motets by Alessandro Grandi, which were published in Ferrara in 1614, are performed here as they might have been sung by a convent choir or the concerto di dame that flourished in Ferrara at that time - though there's no evidence that Grandi, who was a major figure in north Italian music in the first decades of the 17th century and perhaps second only in importance to Monteverdi, ever had such all-female performances in mind. However, with the tenor and bass lines generally transposed up an octave, and the bass sometimes not sung at all, the music has a curiously weightless quality, and even though the performances are decently polished and delineated, the inevitable overlapping of the lines makes the polyphonic strands less distinct and the textures unduly constrained.
Andrew Clements

MUSICWEB:
Alessandro Grandi is one of the Italian composers of the early 17th century who is almost completely overshadowed by Claudio Monteverdi. There are not many recordings of his works available. This is difficult to understand as Grandi's music is of excellent quality and shows the features of so much of the sacred music of the time: a combination of 'prima prattica' and 'seconda prattica' and a very strong attention to the text and its 'affetti'. The first time I heard his music was on an old record by the Academia Monteverdiana, directed by Denis Stevens. The interpretation wasn't brilliant, not even by the standards of that time (1976), but good enough to make a lasting impression. Since then I have always been on the lookout for recordings of his works. I am happy that I had the opportunity to listen to this disc, but also very disappointed in the interpretation. More about that later.

First something about Grandi. It is not quite certain where he was born, probably in Ferrara, where he also worked during the first stage of his career. In 1617 he was appointed as a singer at St Mark's in Venice, when Monteverdi was choirmaster there. Grandi became Monteverdi's deputy in 1620. In 1627 he moved to Bergamo, where he became maestro di cappella. He died there of the plague in 1630.

Grandi's first collection of music was published in 1610. Early in his career he was influenced by the music of Giovanni Gabrieli and Giovanni Croce; it wasn't until the early 1620s that he adopted the monodic style. And it was only in Bergamo that he composed large-scale works. Before that he mostly composed smaller-scale works for voices and bc. The collection of motets for five voices recorded by Musica Secreta dates from 1614, when he still worked in Ferrara. The volume was edited by the Ferrarese singer Placido Marcelli and dedicated to Margherita Gonzaga d'Este, widow of Alfonso II d'Este. At the court of the Estes three famous female singers were active, known as the 'Concerto delle Donne'. When her husband died, Margherita returned to her birthplace Mantua, where she founded and entered a convent. But she never took the vows of profession, and tried to keep her household as much as possible. As the singing of polyphony wasn't allowed in convents she asked the Pope for dispensation, which was granted.

It is possible the motets of this third book were performed for Margherita, but she won't have heard them as they were written by Grandi. In a women's convent no men were allowed to perform, but Grandi had scored his motets for mostly soprano, alto, two tenors and bass. For a performance in a women's convent the lowest parts had to be transposed upwards, usually an octave, or they could be played instrumentally. It is reasonable to assume this was a normal practice. Some convents performed music written by nuns, but they certainly also had to turn to music written for 'normal' practice. And even if composers had performances by women's voices only in mind, they usually scored their compositions for conventional forces, as Vivaldi did in the early 18th century. His Psalm settings have solo parts for soprano and alto, whereas the tutti are for the usual four voices. This was just a matter of supply and demand: music for women's voices alone just didn't sell.

In this performance the former of the practices described above has been applied: the lower voices are transposed upwards. In some cases the lowest voice isn't performed at all. I find that very odd: you just can't completely omit a part from a composition, in particular as an instrumental performance had been perfectly possible and in line with the practice of the time.

Musica Secreta is an ensemble whose focus is on music by female composers of the 17th century. It isn't the only ensemble of this kind: the Italian ensemble Capella Artemisia, directed by Candace Smith, has produced several discs with music by women, in particular by nuns. Most of them have been released on the Italian label Tactus. Here Musica Secreta widens its horizon by bringing music written for conventional forces in performances that could have taken place in women's convents. It is an interesting angle from which to view music of the early 17th century in Italy, and is perfectly legitimate. It is therefore even more disappointing that the interpretation is far from ideal.

Don't get me wrong: Musica Secreta is a very fine ensemble, and the five singers on this disc - Deborah Roberts, Tessa Bonner, Katharine Hawnt (soprano), Catherine King (mezzo) and Caroline Trevor (contralto) - have very nice voices which blend excellently. The problem is that the singing is rather bland. As the programme notes in the booklet state Grandi's motets are a mixture of 'prima prattica' and 'seconda prattica'. The latter aspect is reflected not only by the use of the basso continuo, but also by elements like contrast, text expression and ornamentation. In all these aspects this recording falls short of what one may expect to hear in music of this period. The text expression is limited as is the addition of ornamentation, and there are hardly any dynamic shades. A very important vocal technique at this time was the 'messa di voce', the swelling and abating of the voice on a single note. It was especially used for very emotional passages, and in the motets recorded here a word like "o" (O dulcis, o mater pietatis, o amor) almost begs for the use of it, but it is absent here. Giulio Caccini (Le nuove musiche, 1601) calls this technique "the foundation of Passion". It is this passion which is lacking. It is really beyond me how Marian motets can be performed with so little emotion. After all, we are in the middle of the Counter-Reformation here, and the veneration of Mary was at the very heart of this movement. I also note very little involvement in the penitential motets, and the exaltation which characterises early baroque settings of the 'Litaniae Beatae Mariae Virginis' isn't delivered in this performance either.

As the recording of Grandi's motets of 1614 only would make the playing time of this disc rather short, six 'bonus tracks' are offered. These are pieces from the ensemble's programme 'Fallen'. "Fallen depicts the anguished and erotic dream of a young 17th-century girl on the eve of her forced enclosure within the convent." As I haven't seen or heard this programme, in which the ensemble cooperated with a playwright and a filmmaker, it is difficult to assess the function of these pieces within that programme. The performances of the works by Josquin and the plainchant are stylistically somewhat better than Grandi, but here the ensemble sounds a bit stressed now and then, probably as a result of the upward transposition. The compositions by De Wert and Agostini fare little better than Grandi, though.

The booklet contains informative programme notes and all the lyrics with an English translation. As one may assume these are meant to be read, why are they printed on a background which makes that so difficult?

To sum up: a splendid idea to bring the music of Grandi to our attention, but in this performance the qualities of his music are severely under-exposed. Grandi definitely deserves a second chance.
Johan van Veen