St Bartholomew the Great, London’s oldest parish church, was a suitably ancient venue for a performance of Monteverdi’s Vespro della Beata Vergine (1610) on Wednesday 26 March 2025. The performance, directed by Rupert Gough, featured the Brandenburg Baroque Soloists and the excellent choir of Royal Holloway, University of London. 

I realised, when the conductor placed the parts for Monteverdi’s 6-part Magnificat on the music stands, that I had actually played this setting (with instrumental doubling chosen by the conductor) before; this was a cue that prompted me to remember that I had actually played Monteverdi’s Vespers for this conductor once before, at London’s St. Martin-in-the-Fields, in 2016.

On this occasion I played third cornetto, using my usual 440Hz cornetto by John McCann. I also played an S-shaped alto cornetto with a brass key, on which I could play down to low F. This was very useful as I had to double a few low alto and high tenor parts. The alto instrument I played was made by Sam Goble, who was playing first cornetto. Nick Emerson (whom I had not met before) played second cornetto (and I’m sure it won’t be the last time we meet). Emily Saville, Martyn Sanderson and Andrew Lester played sackbuts, and Persephone Gibbs (violin), Sarah Moffat (violin), Joe Crouch (bass violin) and James Bramley (theorbo) comprised the string section.