Monteverdi Vespers
30 May 2026
7.30pm
at Great Malvern Priory
In Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610, the solemnity and splendour of Venetian religious rites meet the drama of early opera in a strikingly original fusion of musical styles.
From the dramatic opening fanfare quoting Monteverdi's Orfeo to the closing hymn Ave Maris Stella celebrating the Virgin Mary and the city of Venice as 'star of the sea', Monteverdi's settings of psalms and motets in the Vespers will be combined in this performance with Gabrieli's lively instrumental Canzone and his spectacular polychoral motet Omnes Gentes.
CAMBRIDGE RENAISSANCE VOICES, directed by Rupert Preston Bell, was formed in 2013 from a group of singers with a deep experience of sacred polyphony. Many of the singers met in the Cambridge Taverner Choir, with whom they recorded CDs of Portuguese Renaissance music (shortlisted for the Gramophone Early Music Award), performing these works in monasteries and churches in Coimbra and Lisbon.
The choir has performed in the great Suffolk wool churches of Lavenham and Long Melford, the Italianate church at Wilton, Sherborne Abbey, St Cross in Winchester, Boxgrove Priory, King’s Lynn Minster and Tallis's church at Waltham Abbey. Recent concerts include music from Renaissance Rome celebrating Palestrina's 500th anniversary, and a programme of 17th-century English music for voices and viols with Fretwork. '‘...beautifully controlled...The singers showed understanding and passion in their performance’ Early Music Review
THE MUSICAL AND AMICABLE SOCIETY, a collective of professional period-instrumentalists, was founded by Martin Perkins and Kate Fawcett in 2003 in homage to its 18th-century namesake. Performing in combinations ranging from consort to orchestra, the Amicables are renowned for their fresh approach bringing the ethos of chamber music to historically informed performances of Baroque and Classical repertoire. Recent performances include Bach's B Minor Mass in Oxford's Sheldonian Theatre, Handel's Samson in Southwell Minster, and Bach's Brandenburg concerti in Worcester's Henry Sandon Hall.
Tickets £25 booked online in advance / £30 on the door. £10 for under 18s and fulltime students. Booking at ticketsource.co.uk
