Raise, Raise the Voice: Baroque Splendour

The London chamber choir Vivamus directed by Rufus Frowde, with organist Richard Hills. A selection of sacred and secular motets and madrigals by Claudio Monteverdi and Henry Purcell, showcasing the choir's baroque flair in Latin, Italian and English. Monteverdi's rousing 'Cantate Domino', a sharp contrast to the following piece, 'Lamento d'Arianna', his setting of Ariadne's sorrowful exhortations to Theseus after he abandons her on the island of Naxos. As the lamentations die away Purcell's first work of the evening, his Fantasia in D upon a ground for three violins and continuo played by Richard Hills. The central piece of the concert is 'Raise, Raise the Voice', Purcell's Ode for St Cecelia's Day, for soprano, bass, chorus, two violins and continuo; followed by some of his anthems. Ends with sacred works from Monteverdi: 'Christe, adoramus te' and 'Beatus vir'.