Tonight - Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610 
There's a short taster video on The Sixteen's tweet.
A welcome outing as the Radio 3 In Concerts have been very thin on Early / Baroque music of late.
* See French Frank's The Sixteen Harry Christophers post
There's a short taster video on The Sixteen's tweet.
A welcome outing as the Radio 3 In Concerts have been very thin on Early / Baroque music of late.
Monteverdi Vespers
Radio 3 in Concert
Live at the Barbican Hall, London, The Sixteen Choir & Orchestra, conducted by their founder Harry Christophers, present a cornerstone of the Western musical tradition.
Claudio Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610 shows one of the greatest composers of all time at the height of his powers and working on an unprecedented scale. The music is dazzlingly inventive and expressive, by turns intimate and sensuous, splendid and elaborate.
Yet no one knows why Claudio Monteverdi published his great masterpiece in praise of the Virgin Mary. It's not even certain if this ravishing collection of psalms, motets, a sonata, hymn and seven-part setting of the Magnificat was intended for performance as a continuous liturgical sequence. Is it, as some have suggested, one of history's most elaborate job applications? Monteverdi, miserable at the Mantuan court, possibly had an eye on impressing the authorities in Venice, a city where the Marian cult was especially strong. If that was behind the Vespers it eventually worked because three years later Monteverdi was at last appointed maestro di cappella at St Mark's, the top musical job in Venice.
Presented by Ian Skelly.
The Sixteen Choir & Orchestra
Harry Christophers (conductor)
Radio 3 in Concert
Live at the Barbican Hall, London, The Sixteen Choir & Orchestra, conducted by their founder Harry Christophers, present a cornerstone of the Western musical tradition.
Claudio Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610 shows one of the greatest composers of all time at the height of his powers and working on an unprecedented scale. The music is dazzlingly inventive and expressive, by turns intimate and sensuous, splendid and elaborate.
Yet no one knows why Claudio Monteverdi published his great masterpiece in praise of the Virgin Mary. It's not even certain if this ravishing collection of psalms, motets, a sonata, hymn and seven-part setting of the Magnificat was intended for performance as a continuous liturgical sequence. Is it, as some have suggested, one of history's most elaborate job applications? Monteverdi, miserable at the Mantuan court, possibly had an eye on impressing the authorities in Venice, a city where the Marian cult was especially strong. If that was behind the Vespers it eventually worked because three years later Monteverdi was at last appointed maestro di cappella at St Mark's, the top musical job in Venice.
Presented by Ian Skelly.
The Sixteen Choir & Orchestra
Harry Christophers (conductor)
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