Monteverdi Vespers of 1610
I Fagiolini, English Cornett & Sackbut Ensemble
Robert Hollingworth
St Martin in the Fields, 26 September 2025

The Monteverdi Vespers of 1610 is one of those enigmatic pieces with a complicated back story and fascinating performance quandaries, not unlike the Bach B minor Mass. Under the title of Vespers for the Blessed Virgin, it is part of a larger publication, Mass for the Most Holy Virgin for six voices, and Vespers for several voices with some sacred songs, suitable for chapels and ducal chambers. It combines music for a Mass and the Vespers together with “a few sacred songs” and a largely instrumental Sonata. It does not fit into either a traditional Mass or Vespers ritual. At the time, Monteverdi was maestro di capella to the Gonzaga Dukes of Mantua, but the score was personally dedicated and presented to the Borghese Pope Paul V in Rome, suggesting that it was a not-so-subtle calling card for preferment, representing as it does the wide scope of his compositional powers. Despite that, within three years, he was appointed maestro di capella at St Mark’s in Venice. It is unlikely that it was ever heard the Vespers in the form that we know it today. Indeed, it might never have been intended to be heard in that form.

This performance was given by I Fagiolini and the English Cornett & Sackbut Ensemble, directed by Robert Hollingworth. Described (by themselves) as a “hand-painted original in an age of AI”, the nearly 40-year-old I Fagiolini stepped out from behind their expansive social media presence for this live performance in St Martin in the Fields. They have done this a few times in recent years, including at Kings Place in 2013 and more recently at the Lammermuir Festival, but this is the first that I have been able to get to hear it. I gather a recording is in the offing sometime next year. Based on this impressive performance, this will be something well worth waiting for.

There are many ways of performing the Vespers. None of them is strictly correct, as we have little idea of Monteverdi’s original intentions, but some are questionable. Hollingworth took what is generally considered the safest option of performing the music as written, with no additional music. One alternative is to try to incorporate the Vespers into a quasi-liturgical setting, with the various plainchant and other bits and bobs that would accompany such a service if the music was actually intended for such an occasion, which is unlikely.

The Vespers are usually performed without an interval, as they only last about 90 minutes, but this included a rather awkward interval before the Lauda Jerusalem. The awkwardness was St Martin in the Fields’ decision to make people wanting to download or upload liquids first exit the church into the adjoining courtyard and then down the stairs to the partially closed lower level.

The line-up was eleven singers (one more than is strictly necessary) and 14 instrumentalists: a continuo section of harp, two chitarrone, organ and occasional dulcian; a string section of two violins, viola, bass violin and violone; and the two cornetts and three sackbuts of the English Cornett & Sackbut Ensemble. Two of the continuo players doubled on flutes and recorders.

The singers were Julia Doyle, Ciara Hendrick, Martha McLorinan, Nicholas Mulroy, Hugo Hymas, Matthew Long, Jacob Ewens, Greg Skidmore, Sam Gilliatt, Frederick Long, and Charles Gibbs. All excelled in their various roles and consort settings, but several warrant special mention. In tenor Nicholas Mulroy’s outstanding Nigra sum, his sensitive and delicately textured voice responded beautifully to the text and the subtle inflexions of Monteverdi’s musical lines. Sopranos Julia Doyle and Ciara Hendrick intertwined the voices with perfect intonation in their Pulchra es, their voices ranging from intimate togetherness to wildly independent solo flourishes. Greg Skidmore’s powerfully rendered Audi coelum was well balanced by the distant Echo singer standing halfway down a side aisle. The consort singing was exceptional, the more powerful moments executed in what I noted as “unforced gusto”, the gentler moments with appropriate sensitivity.

Equally impressive were the 14 instrumentalists, notably harpist Aileen Henry (who was often the sole accompanist), chittarrone players, Linda Sayce and Eligio Quinteiro, and violinists Kinga Ujszaszi and Persephone Gibbs. Catherine Pierron and Robert Hollingworth shared organ-playing duties. Incidentally, the organ was the impressive Walter Chinaglia organo di legno, based on Italian Renaissance models with, unusually, an 8′ principale. This blended beautifully with the singers and instruments, to the extent that I didn’t realise until afterwards that it had a regal stop that used in support of the cornett and sackbuts.

Robert Hollingworth’s introductory programme note and his spoken introduction to the concert noted a few specific interpretation aspects of the performance; two rather complex ones relating to the pitch of the organ instruments and the pitch relationship between the various sections of the Vespers. One that may have been more apparent to listeners was the relationship between the duple and triple time sections, a relationship known as sesquialtera based on the tempo proportions in Renaissance mensural notation. I have written about this in many reviews over many years, as many performances get this wrong, playing the triple sections too fast, upsetting the Renaissance concept of a slow tactus in the process. Robert Hollingworth suggested in his programme note that he had lost sleep over this issue and may change his mind, but in my opinion, he got this aspect exactly right. It was noticeable right from the start. In the declamatory Deus, in adjutorium meum intende, the instrumental ritornellas separating the fanfare-like vocal sections are in this triple time metre, the slower pulse within the slow beat of the tactus pulse bringing an appropriate grandeur that is lost when the triple time are played too fast.