Les Traversées Baroques

Intimate or monumental, mystical or extrovert, Monteverdi's Vespers are not only an unparalleled, fabulously inventive work, but also a musical experience as rare as it is unforgettable.

Although he was working in Mantua at the time, composing mainly secular music for the Gonzaga court, it was in Venice that Monteverdi had his Vespro della Beata Vergine published in 1610. His intention with this Marian score was to attract the attention of Pope Paul V, to whom he had requested an audience in order to obtain a new post. Is this the reason why the work, so richly imaginative, seems to explore every style and mood, from the most liturgical to the most theatrical? Requiring a choir (sometimes doubled), vocal soloists and instrumental solos, the Vespers alternate between ecstatic prayer (Ave Maris Stella) and an expression of exuberant, secular passion (Lauda Jerusalem). Complex and evolving in structure, they present a prodigious range of forms, from hymns and psalms to the concluding Magnificat, all based on the use of plainsong melodies. Religious depth and operatic grandeur thus merge in this unique work, between 'old' and 'new' style, Renaissance balance and Baroque flourish.