During the seventeenth century, there was no such thing as a middle-class concert scene in Italy, as we are familiar with today. If one wanted to hear festive music, one could only experience this on a regular basis in church services. Since the Catholic mass only offered, due to liturgical guidelines, limited possibilities for the performance of extensive musical works, the vespers during key Catholic celebrations in particular developed – especially on Marian feast days – into concert-like evening music.

One of the greatest of its kind is the Vesper For The Blessed Virgin by Johann Rosenmüller (1617–1684), who grew up in Germany, but experienced the greatest part of his career as a composer in Italy. Eyewitness reports given by Venetian travellers of the seventeenth century who were able to attend such vespers, speak of impressive performances for which sometimes additional galleries had to be erected because the available organ gallery was not able to accommodate the huge number of musicians.

Likewise, Rosenmüller's Vesper is cast with a large and excellent line-up: directed by Jörg Breiding, the Hanover Boys’ Choir, the Johann Rosenmüller Ensemble and the Barockorchester L’Arco, as well as renowned soloists, came together in Hanover. Together they revived this monumental piece, which almost fell into oblivion for decades, after it was on everybody’s lips in Germany and Italy for more than a hundred years.