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Claudio MONTEVERDI(1567-1643):
*Vespro della Beata Vergine* (1610)
Dorothee Mields _soprano_
Barbora Kabátková _soprano_
William Knight _high tenor_
Benedict Hymas _high tenor_
Samuel Boden _tenor_
Reinoud Van Mechelen _tenor_
Peter Kooij _baritone_
Wolf Matthias Friedrich _bass_
*Collegium Vocale Gent*
Philippe Herreweghe
Claudio Monteverdi, born 450 years ago in Cremona, personifies the transition from the Renaissance to the Baroque. Called _l’oracolo della musica_ by contemporaries, he was steeped in the polyphonic tradition as a singer, maestro di cappella and composer, yet helped bring about the new seconda prattica in which textual expression took precedence over the notes. His 1610 _Vespro della Beata Vergine_ proves that these two worlds were not mutually exclusive – on the contrary, they combine amazingly well.