Going Against the Grain, Seraphic Fire Released Its Intimate Vision of Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610

Led by conductor and founding artistic director Patrick Dupré Quigley, Seraphic Fire has returned the sound of Claudio Monteverdi's Vespro della Beata Vergine (1610) to the composer's own age – the late Renaissance rather than the high Baroque of Bach or Handel most often heard on record. On its new recording of the Vespers – released August 10 via the Miami-based choir's own Seraphic Fire Media – the smaller forces and intimate atmosphere yield a version of Monteverdi's magnum opus that is finally in tune with the inscription on the score's title plate: "suited for the chapels and chambers of princes."