The other day I came across a beautiful version of Schubert’s Ave Maria by the Catalan composer, Bernat Vivancos, former Director of Music at L’Escolania de Montserrat. I started reading up on the Escolania and have become rather captivated by this ancient boys’ choir which sings liturgically 365 days a year at the Benedictine monastery of Santa Maria de Montserrat. This is an extraordinary edifice seemingly built out of the serrated rocks of the Catalonian mountains, and the boys have sung there, clad in their semi monastic robes, since the early 1300s when the Escolania was first started. And while this has always been a choir only of boys, the Monastery is starting an additional mixed choir which will include girls and women between 17 and 24 years old. In the Monastery’s nearly 1000-year history, girls have never been permitted to sing liturgically until now. It sounds like a groundbreaking moment to be celebrated.
I am posting a link to a video of the Ave Maria made in 2013 by the boys of the Escolania, and this choral version is conducted by the composer in the basilica of Santa Maria de Montserrat. They are an outstanding choir. It is well worth a listen and a watch.
I sang Vivancos’ Ave Maria for the first time at the recent funeral of an old friend, and I plan to add it to the Ave Maria ‘canon’ at the many weddings and funerals at which I sing.
So here is the solo version, the score of which Bernat Vivancos kindly sent me, sung by yours truly, and accompanied on the organ of Our Most Holy Redeemer & St Thomas More, Cheyne Row by Ian Coleman.
Suzy Robinson June 2023
Suzy Robinson soprano 