Monteverdi’s Vespers are testimony to his uniqueness, but could he ever have imagined that his colourful collection would become a modern classic?

Monteverdi had a good life at the scintillating court of Mantua. He played gamba, composed lots of madrigals and wrote opera history. But what if he could exchange the demanding Gonzaga duchy for a pope? As maestro di cappella in Rome he would really be able to make his mark – and without too much trouble from his boss. The Vespers became Monteverdi’s eternally valuable calling card, even if Paul V did reject his advances.

“The Vespers are Monteverdi’s eternally
 valuable calling card.“

Vespers authority Andrew Parrott sheds light on the colourful mix of old, polyphonic sacred music and emerging Baroque. As a controversial pioneer of historically informed performances, Parrott was already amazing audiences in 1984 with his Taverner Consort. The keywords are transparency, the human dimension and the resounding result of recent research – which is precisely what the Bach Society still stands for in 2019.