Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com's Best of 1998
Monteverdi's Vespers is a monumental collection of musical settings of liturgical texts for a service in honor of the Virgin. It presents a cornucopia of styles, stretching from traditional plainchant to a forward-looking, innovative aesthetic, and bridges the gap between the Renaissance and the beginnings of Baroque musical language. William Christie leads a beautifully sculpted, majestic performance that is responsive to this stylistic profusion but also makes a case for underlying structural cohesion. The instrumental and choral playing is richly textured, while the soloists give exquisitely wrought accounts of Monteverdi's elaborate word painting. --Thomas May
Amazon.com essential recording
William Christie and his ensemble Les Arts Florissants offer serious competition for Philippe Herreweghe's outstanding version of the Monteverdi Vespers on Harmonia Mundi. What you hear (and subconsciously appreciate) is detail, in the sound as well as in the vocal and instrumental lines. Careful phrasing and dynamics complement the rich harmonies and inspired melodic writing, enhancing the work's inherent drama. Because of the Vespers' incredible variety of musical styles--highly unusual for a... read more
Monteverdi - Vespro della Beata Vergine / Marin-Degor, Wieczorek, Stefanowicz, Agnew, Cornwell, Félix, Bayley, Les Arts Florissants, Christie
Monteverdi - Vespro della Beata Vergine / Marin-Degor, Wieczorek, Stefanowicz, Agnew, Cornwell, Félix, Bayley, Les Arts Florissants, Christie, Music, Claudio Monteverdi, Giovanni Paolo Cima, William Christie, Sophie Marin-Degor, Maryseult Wieczorek, Artur Stefanowicz, Fabian Schofrin, Paul Agnew, Béatrice Martin, Jonathan Cable, Chamber, Chamber Music, Choral, Choral Music, Classical, Classical Composers, Classical Music, Orchestral & Symphonic, Trio Sonata
Music Review:
Music Review
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Bedroom Bliss with Beethoven [Explicit Lyrics]