This second volume of Monteverdi’s sacred music focuses on works to be found in the 1650 publication Messa a quattro voci e salmi. Here we find a glorious Mass-setting (one of only three to have survived complete – the 1597 Mass is recorded on volume 1), and the composer’s well crafted response to the epic Litany of Loreto. The third work here with full choir is the five-part Exultent caeli, a suitably joyous little work published in 1629.

Distinguished soloists Carolyn Sampson, Rebecca Outram, Rogers Covey-Crump, Charles Daniels, James Gilchrist and Peter Harvey share out the remaining works: the duets Venite, siccientes, Ego dormio, Cantate Domino and O beatae viae, and the solo pieces Currite populi and Laudate Dominum (sung by Gilchrist and Harvey, respectively).