In the 1620s and 30s Monteverdi and his followers at St Mark’s in Venice created a new type of church music, full of operatic drama, virtuosity and expression. This programme recreates a sequence of music for Vespers as it might have been sung at Mark’s around 1640. It includes psalms by Monteverdi, with the famous setting of ‘Beatus vir’, and his talented but shortlived follower Giovanni Antonio Rigatti, concluding with Rigatti’s grand sevenpart setting of the Magnificat. There will also be music by Alessandro Grandi and Francesco Cavalli.
The concert features some of the distinguished solo singers assembled for our
projected performance of Monteverdi’s opera L’Orfeo, postponed for another year because of the pandemic.
Performers:
Philippa Hyde soprano
Faye Newton soprano
Charles Daniels tenor
Stuart O’Hara bass
members of Psalmody
The John Jenkins Consort
directed by Peter Holman organ
