Crouch End Festival Chorus: Monteverdi's Vespers

After a year of commissions to celebrate Crouch End Festival Chorus's 30th anniversary, we wind back four centuries to one of the greatest choral works ever written. Claudio Monteverdi’s Vespro della Beata Vergine 1610 – or simply Vespers of 1610 – is an ambitious collection of choral and instrumental pieces incorporating both liturgical and non-liturgical elements. Despite a lack of precise information regarding Monteverdi’s original intentions – whether the Vespers were exclusively for use in a religious service; the exact instrumentation to be used; whether they were even meant to be performed as a whole – the music included in the publication of 1610 offers a fascinating conspectus of old and new styles of composition, ranging from the parody Mass to the very essence of the modern style in the sacred concertos (‘concerto’ at that time indicating a form of vocal music with instruments).

The range of expression in the Vespers is enormous; the exuberance of the virtuoso passages is breath-taking; the beauty of the vocal lines is unforgettable; and the changes of mood and the rhythmic invention are startling – all within a firm overall structure that ties together this wonderful kaleidoscope of styles.

Conductor David Temple says: "The Monteverdi Vespers has become the most popular Baroque choral work, knocking Handel’s Messiah off the perch it has occupied for the past 200 years."