Roland Wilson - Monteverdi: Vespro della beata Vergine (1610) (2011)

After decades of experience with the music of Monteverdi, as well as his contemporaries and predecessors, Roland Wilson views the work in the context of its own time when polychorality and proportion played a decisive role in the music. An intelligent analysis of the printed parts reveals that Monteverdi’s symmetrical structures are mirrored here in the ensemble which reflects that which he had available; 12 singers divided into two 6-part groups, perfectly balanced by the two instrumental-choirs (3 cornetti, 3 trombones, 6 strings) The whole work is performed using this 4-choir basis supported by a large continuo-group of 2 organs, 3 chitarroni, harp and lirone.

Like the recent Signum recording, this performance is a semitone higher than modern pitch - and the extra split semitone keys of the Mantuan organs allow transpositions other than the now commonly adopted fourth lower. This contributes to an exciting recording by the crème of Germany‘s early music scene, made at a live concert in October 2010, which makes this now well-known work sound as fresh as at it was in 1610.