12th February 2011

****

“Forces are intimate and speeds brisk; vocal and instrumental colours dance; secular madrigals seem around the corner. You can’t imagine this performance echoing through St Mark’s in Venice; a Doge’s fancy dress ball, more like. It’s intensely alive and human”

March 2011

****

“This exciting recording of the Monteverdi Vespers is probably the fastest ever. The double-choir effects in 'Laudate Jerusalem', for example, flicker back and forth like lightening. Even when the solo singer in 'Nigra sum' apparently lingers tenderly over certain effective words, the delicacy of his decorations retain their sweetness.”

20th March 2011

***

“Pluhar likes her cornets and sackbuts, as did Monteverdi...Pluhar’s 12-strong “choir” includes some big-name baroque-world soloists: the soprano Nuria Rial, the countertenor Pascal Bertin and the tenor Markus Brutscher. The vocal textures are always transparent”

May 2011

“This is a radical and different Vespers that really works. It works because it captures so many of this famous work's glorious strengths anew...there is no lack of crisp splendour, especially when the cornetts superimpose their dizzy decorations...And if it is the technical precision and joyful élan of the band that often commands the attention...the singing mixing thrilling incisiveness with real ardency and pliability.”