Nisi Dominus « Le Poème Harmonique

Nisi Dominus

Popular songs and bel canto: a procession in Venice

In Vivaldi’s day, Venice was famous across Europe for its magnificent processions. Each major festival brought Venetians from every walk of life onto the streets where they paraded under the banners of their “brotherhoods” to the sound of laudi. These popular devotional songs, chanted in unison to the beat of a drum, gave rhythm to the processions along the calli and canals to the doors of the church. The excitement would then give way to contemplation as cantors sang half-improvised polyphonies, pulled from the depths of time, and a composition in keeping with the tastes of the day, illustrating the Baroque art of the bel canto.

This is also the route taken by this programme, crowned by the wonderful Nisi Dominus by Vivaldi, made famous by our countertenors but probably written for a young female pupil at the ospedale della Pietà – here performed by the brilliant Eva Zaïcik, a prize-winner at 2018 year’s Voix Nouvelles classical singing competition, the Victoires de la musique and the Queen Elisabeth competition. It is an encounter between the holy masterwork of the red-headed priest, the repertoire of the scuole grandi decorated by Tiepolo and Tintoretto, and that of the grandiose St Mark’s basilica.