Monteverdi: Vespro Della Beata Vergine – InAlto

The 1610 Vespers, composed at a pivotal moment in Claudio Monteverdi’s life when he sought not only to establish his new musical language but also to obtain high-placed employment, here take on new significance. Based on the most recent musicological research, this version recreates the Vespers in accordance with the Mantuan customs of the time. Recorded in the Palatine Basilica of Santa Barbara in Mantua and using only the instruments mentioned in the score, this interpretation favours a chamber aesthetic, as suggested by Monteverdi’s remark “ad Sacella sive Principum Cubicula accomodata” – a work conceived for chapels and the princes’ chambers – and reveals the Vespers in their original intimacy.