By Richard Fairman [Financial Times, 24 May 2010]

It is 400 years since Monteverdi published his Vespro della Beata Vergine. We do not know when or where it may have been performed, or even by what design the various parts were gathered together, but the Vespers of 1610, as it is commonly known, ranks as one of the first great pillars to be erected in the pantheon of classical music.