An outstanding collection of vocal music by Claudio Monteverdi presents an exquisitely varied programme on the theme of love in all its conflicting emotions, its joys and sweet pains affecting gods and mere mortals. An all-star cast including Carolyn Sampson, Sarah Connolly, Charles Daniels and James Gilchrist is joined by The King’s Consort’s highly colourful instrumental ensemble, recorded in the unsurpassed acoustic of St Jude-on-the-Hill, London. The CD comes complete with a 48 page booklet with authoritative liner notes by renowned Monteverdi scholar Prof. John Whenham, together with full texts and translations.

The delicious programme includes the melancholy Lamento della Ninfa, the virtuoso Zefiro torna, a series of exquisite love duets, Orfeo’s famous Possente spirto, a plangent lament from Poppea, and Monteverdi’s magnificent Hor che’l ciel, whose final bars see the upper voices rise through nearly two octaves, creating one of the most spectacular endings in all baroque music.