Monteverdi’s 1610 Vespers is the landmark work of early Baroque music. It sits at the crossroads of Renaissance polyphony and the new dramatic style heard in his first opera, L'Orfeo. 'The Vespers' redefined what sacred music could sound like – emotionally immediate, virtuosic, both looking back to the past and driving forward into the future.

Monteverdi specialists I Fagiolini and Robert Hollingworth have waited until their 40th birthday to record the 1610 collection. This is a lifetime's work with every nuance of drama and colour brought out in their one-to-a-part performance. This historically informed recording features a higher organ pitch (known at the time as mezzo tuono), with a brighter and 'made to match' cornetto and sackbut sound, new thoughts on the characterful time changes (more Renaissance, perhaps?), alongside intimate and deeply personal singing.