COMPOSERS: Monteverdi
LABELS: Naxos
WORKS: Vespers of the Blessed Virgin
PERFORMER: The Scholars Baroque Ensemble
CATALOGUE NO: 8.550662/3 DDD
Some recordings of this work are so plodding that they make you lose the will to live.Not this one.This is clean, simple and lively.The edition (by Clifford Bartlett) sees no need to encase the work in endless plainsongs, nor to transpose Lauda Ierusalem as others might. Only the Magnificat is tweaked up a tone to give us a bright but inauthentic thrill at the end. Audi coelum is wonderful with its alert solo decoration and sensitive choral balance. Anthony Pryer
Monteverdi: Vespers of the Blessed Virgin
Some recordings of this work are so plodding that they make you lose the will to live.Not this one.This is clean, simple and lively.The edition (by Clifford Bartlett) sees no need to encase the work in endless plainsongs, nor to transpose Lauda Ierusalem as others might. Only the Magnificat is tweaked up a tone to give us a bright but inauthentic thrill at the end. Audi coelum is wonderful with its alert solo decoration and sensitive choral balance. Anthony Pryer
Published: January 20, 2012 at 3:12 pm