We are all familiar with Handel's Messiah and Bach's Christmas Oratorio (or, we should be). Here is a remarkable performance of an unjustly neglected masterpiece of Christmas church music, Vespro della Beata Virgine, Vespers of the Holy Virgin. The composer was Claudio Monteverdi.
A wonderful video production was taped at the Royal Chapel of Versailles. The Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists, conducted by Sir John Eliot Gardiner. Written around 1610, 500 years ago, it is scored for "ancient" instruments including sackbuts, double reeds, recorders, cornets and trombones, lutes, strings, organ, and harpsichord.
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