A colorful collection of baroque (music)

Vespers

Vespers Vespers

The background

Vespers

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

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

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.

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.

The concert

Works and Performance

Works

CLAUDIO MONTEVERDI
Vespers

Performers

Netherlands Bach Society
conducted by Andrew Parrott

Griet De Geyter, soprano
Isabel Schicketanz, soprano
Victoria Cassano, mezzo-soprano
Rodrigo del Pozo, (high) tenor
Kevin Skelton, (high) tenor
Zachary Wilder, tenor
João Moreira, tenor
Victor Torres, bariton
Joep van Geffen, bass
Joel Frederiksen, bass

Experience more

View on All of Bach

Canzona in D minor

organ works, BWV 588

Concerto for four harpsichords in A minor

harpsichord works, orchestral works, BWV 1065