Sacred Vocal Music Of Claudio Monteverdi

eissued here in the Hyperion top-20 bestseller series, this recording was praised lavishly on its release in the early 1980s, and won a coveted rosette in the Penguin Guide. It's not hard to understand why. Emma Kirkby is at her bewitching best. The honeyed sounds of Ian Partridge melt the soul. David Thomas sings with all of the character that made him one of the most sought-after basses as the early-music revival gathered pace. The music is a perfect vehicle for the talents of all three, and comes from Claudio Monteverdi's later years, when he had moved on from the large-scale choral and instrumental works we know so well from the Vespers of 1610, to the new fashion of intimate works for small vocal and instrumental ensembles that spread across Europe--intimate, but offering to the performers many opportunities to introduce color and personality of a quasi-operatic nature. The playing of the Parley of Instruments is a model of discretion and sensitivity throughout. Shut your eyes and imagine that you're in St. Mark's in Venice; St. Jude-on-the-Hill in Hampstead was chosen for the exemplary recording because it has similar dimensions to that famous space. --Andrew Green