Search - Monteverdi, Lasserre, Akademia & La Fenice Ens :: Vespro Per La Salute

Some enterprising conductors, moving beyond Monteverdi's Vespro della Beata Vergine of 1610, have assembled other music of Monteverdi and his colleagues into evening services. Here's a fine example: Françoise Lasserre has reconstructed a grand Vespers service from Venice in 1631 celebrating the end of a plague epidemic. (Hence the title, which translates "Vespers for Health.") Using single voices, choir, or a combination of both, she presents Psalm-settings by Monteverdi and a Magnificat by Cavalli, along with chant before each Psalm and solo motets or sonatas for period brass or strings afterward. Lasserre's choir, Akademia, is one of the best in France, the soloists and instrumentalists sound quite at home in this music. A fine choice for anyone who wants to explore 17th-century sacred music. --Matthew Westphal