Credits:

Ludus Modalis

Description:

This is a must-hear! Monteverdis Vespers of the Blessed Virgin Maryone of his greatest masterpieceshas been subject to various interpretations over the past half-century and already has many competing recordings, yet it is surprisingly little known that an interpretation with such a streamlined instrumental lineup is even possible. To begin with, since the performance environments for 17th-century scores likely varied widely depending on where they were transmitted, the scores were designed to allow the instrumentation to be freely adapted to 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, as he sought to demonstrate his versatility by freely blending old and new compositional styles; if we examine it in contrast to the Renaissance