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

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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."

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