The present recording comprises what are undoubtedly some of the most solen and authoritative works by two great composers who held post of Maestro di Cappella in St. Mark's in Venice. Two very strong characters, quite different from each, yet who had much in common in their ingenuity, austere style, artistic environment and the age in which they lived and worked. The two masses were certainly intended for different purposes. Monteverdi's Messa 'In illo tempore' was published in 1610 at the same time as his famous 'Vespro della Beata Vergine' and carries a dedication to Pope Paul V, which indicates that Monteverdi probably wrote it in an attempt to get himself a decent post at the papal musical chapel. On the other hand, Cavalli's Requiem is clearly the work of a composer fully aware he is at the end of his life and at the height a splendid career and who thus it appropriate to dedicate his final composition to himself - a requiem mass, no less.