Monteverdi: Vespers of 1610 (Vespro della Beata Vergine)
This performance of Monteverdi's extraordinary collection of sacred music, which received a 1999 Grammy nomination, has its good points, but it can't really be considered best even in its class. Martin Pearlman leads a relatively large-scale performance, using a 30-member chorus (often doubled by instruments) throughout; he adds some plainchant before thePsalms; he takes theLauda JerusalemandMagnificatat high pitch. The instrumentalists play their difficult parts quite creditably, and Pearlman takes some exciting tempos. Unfortunately, his chorus can't always keep up with him: they often sound muddy and, in fast passages, sometimes downright sloppy. The soprano soloists sing attractively but with wider vibratos than ideal for this music; the tenors, however, are very good indeed, with Richard Croft's heartfelt, sensitively embellished, beautifully modulated singing deserving an award for Best Performance of Monteverdi by a Mainstream Opera Singer. If you want a full-scale choral performance, though, you'll do better with that ofRené JacobsorWilliam Christie, andAndrew Parrott's reconstructionof a Vespers service (done mostly one-singer-per-part) is not to be missed.--Matthew Westphal