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A flamboyant manifesto of the Baroque Revolution. In autumn of 1610 Monteverdi dedicated a luxuriant collection of religious music to Pope Paul V, of which the "Vespers of the Blessed Virgin" is by far the most prodigious work. A spectacular synthesis of Franco-Flemish polyphony and Italian innovations, this impressive monument imposed itself as the standard-bearer of the Monteverdian revolution. But the real miracle is his ability to reconcile solemnity and suavity with the most genuine fervour.

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Opera audiences in nineteenth-century Paris may never have visited India, but they loved to dream about it. After the successes enjoyed by Les pecheurs de perles and Le roi de Lahore Delibes knew what he was doing when he chose to set an adaptation of Pierre Loti’s exotic Indian novel Rarahu and duly scored a hit with his opera Lakme at the Opera-Comique in 1883.

Standing no chance to live up to iceshoweronfire's latest, as ever stunningly beautiful, violin related contribution, these two CDs is still a pretty good compilation of classical pieces.

“One of the great classics of the gramophone. Wonderful as Gobbi’s and di Stefano’s performances are, and superbly dramatic as de Sabata’s conducting is, it is the unique Callas in the title role that provides the greatest marvel” – Emi.com

Gregorian Chant represents the continuing musical tradition of the Catholic Church. In legend, at least, the regularisation of Christian chant has been attributed to the sixth century Pope St. Gregory the Great. Gregoria chant is, in fact, the form of plain chant that largely but not entirely replaced local forms of chant during the Middel Ages. Manuscript sources are preserved from the 10th ad 11th centuries, but these are clearly part of an earlier tradition...

The stature of William Byrd the church musician has somewhat obscured his pioneering work in the more intimate genre of consort song for solo voice with string accompaniment. Early-music star Emma Kirkby joins forces with Fretwork to present this wide-ranging selection of Byrd songs “of sundrie nature”.

This set reveals the riches of Renaissance choral polyphony, the art of combining, contrasting and colouring vocal lines into a sound-web of unsurpassable beauty and splendour. Presented are the great masters from England, France, Germany and Italy, in their best and most prestigious works. Superb performances of one of the best choirs of England: the Choir of New College Oxford. Licensed from Collins Classics, hardly been distributed at the time of issue (1996). All sung texts are included, with lucid liner notes on the music and composer. Packaged in wallets.