This concert presents what is arguably the finest achievement of Venetian liturgical music in one of the most magnificent churches in Venice: Claudio Monteverdi’s Vespro della Beata Vergine of 1610 in the Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari. 

A qualification needs to be entered: ‘Venetian’ here is an elastic term, for it was composed while Monteverdi was still in the service of the Duke of Mantua and he only moved to Venice three years later. But it was printed in Venice in 1610 and may have been composed with La Serenissima in mind, perhaps as a surreptitious job application.

The 1610 Vespers is both a landmark and a fulcrum, embodying the traditional liturgical style, the prima pratica, and the new style which emerged in tandem with opera, the seconda pratica. Emotionally charged, theatrical, yet deeply spiritual, it is the perfect note on which to end.

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