Recommended music:
Today, from the Bond on Vinyl archives, we’re listening to music that appeared in Spectre!
Antonio Vivaldi… Vivaldi? Now that’s a name I haven’t heard [associated with Bond music] in a long time. By long time, it was just last year when I talked about his concertos from the 1700s known as The Four Seasons appearing in A View to A Kill. Today, we’re talking about more Italian baroque music showing up on screen, this time in 2015’s Spectre.
The piece of music is Vivaldi’s composition “Nisi Dominus” with the specific part called “Cum dederit” which is a translation of Psalm 126 in the Old Testament. It translates to “[…] What is right the Lord gives to those he loves in their sleep.”
The recording that you hear in the film is the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, recorded in Sydney for Decca Records in 2000. The vocals are performed by Andreas Scholl, a German countertenor who can exceptionally hit the high tenor range. The music is heard in a scene when newly widowed Lucia Sciarra (played by Monica Bellucci) returns to her Italian Villa following a funeral, expecting to be assassinated herself. The music fits the film’s scene and setting perfectly.
My recording is a bit older, from an album released in 1980 (I didn’t think it really mattered when listening to 400-year-old music), as I wanted to hear this piece of music mixed in with a longer recording. What’s funny is I had picked this album out online from my hotel room, then randomly found it in an antique store in Hays, Kansas, the next morning.
93. Antonio Vivaldi – Sacred Music Volumes 5 And 6
Dale's Toys 