Monteverdi Vespers

Cambridge Renaissance Voices join forces with Musical & Amicable Society on period instruments to bring to life the golden age of Venetian music, when St Mark's Basilica echoed to the sound of Monteverdi's Vespers and music by his forerunner Giovanni Gabrieli.

From the dramatic opening fanfare quoting Monteverdi's Orfeo to the closing hymn Ave Maris Stella celebrating the Virgin Mary and the city of Venice as 'star of the sea', Monteverdi's settings of psalms and motets in the Vespers will be combined in this performance with Gabrieli's lively instrumental Canzone and his spectacular polychoral motet Omnes Gentes.

Both composers played a pivotal role in the shift in musical styles from the serenely interwoven lines of Renaissance polyphony to more dramatic elements of the Baroque, with rich choral sonorities, declamatory solo passages, and lavishly ornamented instrumental ritornelli. In Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610, the solemnity and splendour of religious rites meet the drama of early opera in a strikingly original fusion of vocal styles.

'...beautifully controlled... The singers showed understanding and passion in their performance.' – Early Music Review on Cambridge Renaissance Singers