Credits:

Ludus Modalis

Description:

This is a must-hear! Monteverdis Vespers of the Blessed Virgin Mary is one of his greatest masterpieces, and while various interpretations have been proposed over the past half-century and there are already many competing recordings, it is surprisingly little known that such a streamlined instrumental arrangement is even possible. To begin with, since the performance environments likely varied widely depending on where 17th-century sheet music was transmitted, the scores were designed to allow for flexible reinterpretation of the instrumental lineup depending on the circumstancesand Monteverdis work is no exception. In particular, it is often said that *Vespers of the Blessed Virgin Mary* was intended to showcase the composers mastery of diverse compositional techniques, freely blending old and new compositional styles; if we examine it in contrast to the Renaissance-style Masses included in t