Claudio Monteverdi, The King's Consort - The Sacred Music 1
STYLE: Choral RATING OUR PRODUCT CODE: 9337- LABEL: Hyperion CDA67428 FORMAT: CD Album
Reviewed by Steven Whitehead
Claudio Monteverdi (1567–1643) was a prolific composer in several genres, writing the earliest operas and also many madrigals. However, it is as a composer of sacred music that he is best remembered although too many of us know too little of his output. This series should address that problem. Robert King has assembled a splendid ensemble of soloists plus a more than competent choir and orchestra and together they give an excellent performance of a joyous Christmas sequence from Monteverdi’s great collection of 1640–41, “Selva Morale e Spirituale”, such as might have been heard at a Venetian Vespers, alongside a fine Mass, “Messa à 4”. The texts are, of course, in Latin but the sense is conveyed in music that left this reviewer smiling in pleasure and eager to hear volume two.
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