By Susan Peterson

Gazette Staff

The Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum will celebrate its 25th anniversary on Friday, March 7, with a performance of Claudio Monteverdi's Vespro della Beata Vergine of 1610 -- a magnum opus befitting the occasion.

"Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610 is one of the grandest masterworks in music," said Jameson Marvin, director of choral activities and senior lecturer in music. "It represents at the highest level the kind of music that the Collegium has been doing for a long time. It's music the students most love."

The evening concert -- which will take place at Sanders Theatre at 8 p.m. -- will launch a full weekend of festivities for more than 100 Collegium Musicum alumni returning to celebrate the founding of the University's undergraduate mixed choir.

The name Collegium Musicum implies a small group often specializing in early music, Marvin explained, and when Harvard and Radcliffe began officially merging various programs in the early '70s, there was considerable student interest in forming an undergraduate mixed choir. Today the group has about 60 members, although it has expanded to 75 to perform the Vespers.

This is not the first time the Collegium has sung the Vespers. In the spring of 1980, under Marvin's leadership, the Collegium performed the complex piece -- the first choral work of epic proportions in the history of Western music.

"More than any work in the performance repertoire of the Collegium, it heightened attention among choral and early music lovers in this community," Marvin said. "At that time, it was unusual to be performed by a university group. The complexity of the work -- which is in six to ten parts -- is considerable."

Monteverdi composed the Vespers as part of a large collection of psalms in honor of the Feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary, including a Mass and two settings of the Magnificat. Monteverdi combined the singing of the psalms in alternating parts with solo voice concerti and the hymn, Ave Maris Stella.

Though the Collegium is performing the Vespers with careful attention to interpretive nuances and with Monteverdi's instrumentaion, inevitably some compromises must be made in performances today.

"We're not doing it in a church, let alone for a church service, and so we're not doing the Gregorian chants that are associated with the psalms," Marvin said. "But nicely enough, Monteverdi supplied solos that were to be used in place of the antiphons, for festive occasions -- as we are having!"

The concert will be performed by the current members of the Collegium, but on Saturday afternoon, alumni will have the chance to rehearse favorite works and then perform their own concert.

"I want to sing with the massive alto section of 1990 -- which will be there," said Cristina Hernandez-Malaby '92, JD '95, who is also organizing the 25th reunion. Other reunion events include a banquet at the Cronkhite Graduate Center on Saturday evening and an alumni breakfast on Sunday morning.

"We want to recognize the making of choral music at Harvard as well as the 500 alumni of the Collegium, and the current students who perform masterworks at such a high level," said Hernandez-Malaby.

The concert has required a tremendous time commitment and dedication on the students' behalf, Marvin said, but he knows they are up to the task.

"I'm very lucky to be the guy who can choose the repertoire and wave his arms with this really remarkable group," he said.

David Lyczkowski '99, a bass singer from Cabot House and assistant manager of the Collegium, commented, "It's amazing to take all of these musicians, who could do fantastic music on their own, and put them all together."

"It's a sense of a sum -- bringing together the musicians and making them into a body of a single sound," continued Elisabeth Winterkorn '98, an alto from Dunster House and also manager of the Collegium. "And that is what Jim [Marvin] is looking for -- 75 people to become 6 people -- and we can do it."

For tickets ($10-$24 for adults; $7.50-$12.50 for students and seniors), call the box office at 496-2222.