On 15 October there is the opportunity to hear one of the first great “spatial pieces” written –Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610– in Westminster Cathedral performed by the Cathedral Choir and the New London Concert under Martin Baker. The Vespers was first printed in Venice when the composer was working at the ducal court in Mantua. The historical record does not indicate whether Monteverdi actually performed the Vespers either in Mantua or Venice but it is believed that the work may have been written as an audition piece for a post at Venice (Monteverdi became maestro di cappella at St. Mark’s basilica in Venice in 1613).

Ways of presenting the Vespers vary, but it is known that festal performances of similar works in St. Mark’s, Venice were very spectacular and made full use of the effects that could be obtained by distributing the performers around the building. There is a return to Westminster Cathedral on 18 October when The Sixteen perform alongside the cathedral choir, the Symphony of Harmony and Invention and the Royal Academy of Music Brass Soloists in a programme celebrating the great music performed in St Mark’s, Venice during the Renaissance and baroque periods.

The concert includes music by Monteverdi and Giovanni Gabrieli with processional plainsong interspersing the polyphony, and brass resounding from the galleries. A concert on 25 October looks back at Nono’s musical predecessors and in particular the way Venetian music has a special affinity with space. The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment joins soprano Lucy Crowe and ensemble Schola Pietatis Antonio Vivaldi in a programme of works written for the Ospedale della Pietà, where Vivaldi taught.

During Vivaldi’s lifetime the foundling girls of the Pietà were celebrated as one of Europe’s finest collections of musicians and this concert at St John’s Smith Square is the perfect London location in which to create the musical space of the old Pietà and the performances of Vivaldi’s talented young female performers. Prior to the concert, modern instrument makers discuss and demonstrate replica instruments in the Beckett Collection of instruments. www.southbankcentre.co.uk