Monteverdi: Vespro della Beata Vergine

This is not Harnoncourt’s pioneering Sixties version, but his Eighties live Graz remake. There are numerous worthwhile features – not just the two fine sopranos, but Langridge on exquisite form. The choir, strong on entries, seems a fraction tame overall. The brass is magnificent; the recorders as intuitive and incisive as their Vienna predecessors. Despite rival recordings from Gardiner and Parrott, it remains a star mid-price offer. Roderic Dunnett

Our rating

4

Published: January 20, 2012 at 3:09 pm

COMPOSERS: Monteverdi
LABELS: Teldec Das Alte Werk
WORKS: Vespro della Beata Vergine
PERFORMER: Margaret Marshall, Felicity Palmer, Philip Langridge, Kurt Equiluz, Thomas Hampson, Artur Korn; Arnold Schoenberg Choir, Concentus Musicus Wien/ Nikolaus Harnoncourt
CATALOGUE NO: 4509-92629-2 DDD (2 discs) (1987)

This is not Harnoncourt’s pioneering Sixties version, but his Eighties live Graz remake. There are numerous worthwhile features – not just the two fine sopranos, but Langridge on exquisite form. The choir, strong on entries, seems a fraction tame overall. The brass is magnificent; the recorders as intuitive and incisive as their Vienna predecessors. Despite rival recordings from Gardiner and Parrott, it remains a star mid-price offer. Roderic Dunnett

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