Monteverdi Vespers (1610) “Cummings’s jumping exuberance (while managing to play the harpsichord and organ continuo as well) set the tone for a Vespers which wrung every grain of dramatic force from its setting of a mixed bag of Marian texts, rounded off with a Magnificat of jaw-dropping virtuosity. This is unashamedly show-off music, as skin-prickingly exciting now as four centuries ago… Robust or refined,