Radio 3 in Concert: Visiting the UK: Freiburg Baroque Consort and Vox Luminis

Andrew McGregor presents the latest in the series of outstanding concerts from the last 10 years of visiting orchestras and ensembles, drawn from the Radio 3 archive. 2017 marked four-and-a-half centuries since the birth of Claudio Monteverdi, one of the great figures in Western music. One of the most memorable events of Monteverdi 450 was this exceptional performance of his masterpiece, the Vespers of 1610. Two of Europe's leading early music ensembles, Vox Luminis and Freiburg Baroque Consort joined to recreate this endlessly inventive, dazzlingly expressive music, a ravishing collection of psalms, motets, a sonata, hymn and seven-part setting of the Magnificat, at once intimate and sensuous, splendid and elaborate. Liturgical music, yes. But one critic one seemed to hit the nail on the head when he wrote that 'Nigra sum', one of the settings from the Song of Solomon, 'was the sort of performance that, in other contexts, might well be followed by a cigarette.' Recorded in May 2017 at the London Festival of Baroque Music at St John's Smith Square and presented on the night by Sara Mohr-Pietsch. Monteverdi: Vespro della Beata Vergine (beginning). 8.20 Interval: Lionel Meunier talks to Sara Mohr-Pietsch about the performance practicalities and musical decisions behind his vision of Monteverdi's Vespers. 8.30 Monteverdi: Vespro della Beata Vergine (conclusion). Vox Luminis. Freiburg Baroque Consort, Lionel Meunier (director)