The Gramophone Award-winning ensemble Arcangelo presents a selection from Monteverdi's last three books of madrigals. These ardent and passionate works are microcosms of Monteverdi's great operas and among his most celebrated music. The eighth book of madrigals introduces the genere concitato - (agitated style) that Monteverdi devised to convey the emotions of war, whether physical or psychological. Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda sets an extended passage from Tasso's epic poem Gerusalemme liberata. Tasso's text, set in the time of the first crusade, tells of the combat between the Christian knight Tancredi and the Saracen maiden Clorinda. Most of the action is conveyed by a narrator, sung here by celebrated tenor James Gilchrist.

Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo was premiered in 1607 and is the oldest opera still performed today. The narrative is based on the Greek legend of Orpheus who, armed only with the weapons of music and love, descends into Hades in an attempt to bring his lost bride Eurydice back to the living world. The opera’s dramatic power is brought to life in this acclaimed production conducted by the great Monteverdi expert and interpreter Jordi Savall. Filmed at the Opéra Comique in Paris, L’Orfeo features a virtuoso cast with the service of text and music always at its core.

A pioneer in the development of opera, Claudio Monteverdi took vocal music beyond Renaissance polyphony into an era in which feelings and emotions could be expressed differently. Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria is part of a late flowering in Monteverdi’s illustrious career, and is considered the most profoundly tender and moving of his operas. Its hero Ulysses is forced to undergo cruel tests, hardships, treachery and deception before he can be reunited with his beloved queen Penelope and recover his kingdom. This acclaimed production is conducted by renowned early music specialist Ottavio Dantone, who considers Il ritorno di Ulisse in patria to be ‘the most beautiful opera ever written.’

Classical Music

The "Scherzi Musicali a tre voci di Claudio Monteverde, raccolti da Giulio Cesare Monteverde suo fratello, et nuovamente posti in luce" ("collected by his brother Giulio Cesare Monteverde and revealed again"), were published in 1607 by Ricciardo Amadino in Venice, and dedicated to "Serenissimo S. Don Francesco Gonzaga Prencipe di Mantova, et si Monferrato." These are 18 compositions selected and edited by Giulio Cesare Monteverdi: 17 "Scherzi," strophic songs written by Claudio, except for the last two by Giulio Cesare himself, and a wider concluding ballet, "De la bellezza le dovute lodi." Even with light and schematic compositions such as "Scherzi," the rules of the "Seconda Prattica" do not fail: new polyphonic technique, innovative use of dissonance, original concertation and, above all, great importance to the lyrics, with a strong dramatic power, before harmony and rhythm. The set is a masterpiece of the history of music of that time, in the mark of eternal quarrel between ancient and modern. The EsaEnsemble, a female vocal group directed by Sergio Chierici and accompanied by the instrumental ensemble Baschenis, effectively deals with this important work by the great genius of the Renaissance, in a colorful variety of vocal and instrumental organics supported by a wide use of period instruments.

MONTEVERDI: SELVA MORALE E SPI

After the success of their album of music by Franceco Cavalli, the Cappella Mediterranea and Mariana Flores now present a programme devoted entirely to works for solo voice by Claudio Monteverdi, from the famous Lamento d’Arianna to the sublime (and much less well known) Voglio da vita uscir. Mariana Flores embodies here the most touching personalities of this section of Monteverdi’s output. Argentinean soprano Mariana Flores studied singing at the Universidad Nacional de Cuyo and the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. Since then she has lived and worked in Basel. She regularly sings early operas and vocal literature alongside fine ensembles like the Cappella Mediterranea. The ensemble Cappella Mediterranea was founded in 2005 by the Argentinian conductor Leonardo García-Alarcón. As its name indicates, the ensemble originally arose from a passion for the music of the Mediterranean basin, and aimed to propose a different approach to Baroque music of the Latin tradition. With more than forty-five concerts each year, the ensemble explores the madrigal, the polyphonic motet and opera, a mixture of genres that has molded a unique style characterized by an exceptionally close rapport between the conductor and his musicians.

Classical Music

Classical Music

The present recording constitutes more than just a new version of the Vespers. It is the first recording of the Vespers in the alternative version proposed by the composer, without concertato instruments. It reveals the underlying matrix of the work we all know, the 'original version' to which Monteverdi added concertato instruments for use in large-scale performances. Respecting the structure of the Office of Vespers, Ludus Modalis has chosen to frame the psalms with the antiphons corresponding to a Marian ceremony. The interpretation proposed here is one influenced by the Renaissance tradition. It places the work in perspective in a musical world at the point of equilibrium between prima and seconda prattica, between the achievements of tradition and the contributions of modernity. Ludus Modalis is a professional ensemble of five to twelve singers formed around the tenor Bruno Boterf. The group focuses principally on polyphonic Renaissance and early Baroque repertoire, with incursions into contemporary music. Apart from the absence of a conductor in the standard sense, the ensemble's specificity and it's 'sound blend' are the fruits of thoroughgoing attention to the parameters of a cappella polyphony: the development of an intonation aimed towards achieving a clarity of harmonic intervals; the attention paid to the text on the basis of the declamation and historical pronunciation; and the richness of the sonority achieved through the use of a variety of vocal timbres and colors, as well as a subtle mix of female, male, and even children's voices.

Includes work(s) by Claudio Monteverdi. Ensembles: Rodolfus Choir, English Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble. Conductor: Ralph Allwood.

The Dutch musician Krijn Koetsveld has often conducted Bach, and he was founder-director of The Netherlands Bach Ensemble. However, it is the name of Claudio Monteverdi with which he is indelibly associated: he first encountered the composer’s music in 1972, and describes it as ‘love at first sight, which never passed’. This relationship matured over time into the foundation of a soloistic vocal group, Le Nuove Musiche, with the technical skills, the scholarly understanding and the musical sensitivities to do justice to the highly intimate, sophisticated genre of Renaissance madrigal, of which the nine books by Monteverdi represent its summit and fullest flowering. Recording all nine books, and several other mini-dramas and vocal chamber works which fall within the genre but outside the books themselves, began in 2004 and was only completed in 2018. Koetsveld contributes a lively and authoritative introduction to the whole project in the booklet. He remarks: ‘Nine books of madrigals, all of them unique, contributing to the transition from the Renaissance to the baroque, a musical history in sound.’ As the series has been released, its importance has been widely recognised in the critical press. In 2017, Fanfare observed: ‘Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda is representative of Koetsveld’s approach. The harmonic outline of the continuo is restrained and precise, the tutti playing of the strings articulated clearly. Both instrumental and concerted textures are so transparent one could take dictation to the recording. In a luminous performance as the narrator, Falco van Loon is focused and crystalline; Wendy Roobol is a clean, nimble Clorinda. Arnout Lems is the most dramatic of the soloists, voicing Tancredi in a rich but gentle baritone.’

Classical Music

Classical Music

Today regarded as one of the most innovative and active Baroque ensembles on the international scene, Cappella Mediterranea has already made several distinguished recordings for the Ricercar label. Leonardo Garcia Alarcon will continue his diverse collaborations with Ricercar, but will also release several projects with Alpha Classics, beginning with this original program of music by one of his favorite composers, Claduio Monteverdi. On the occasion of a music theater piece performed at the Doge’s Palace in Venice which was centered on Poppea, whom her nurse Arnalta warns against the vices, Cappella Mediterranea recorded this anthology of arias and madrigals alternating between sins and virtues, performed by the singers who have made the ensemble’s reputation, including Francesca Aspromonte as Poppea, Mariana Flores in Si dolce e’l tormento among others, and the tenor Emiliano Gonzalez-Toro.

14 distinct titles introduce this exciting new series uniting the finest Alpha and ZZT Baroque recordings. Discover - or rediscover - universally known works as well as world premiere recordings of rarities. Newly conducted artist interviews allow for fresh perspectives on their recordings. All releases, digipak in format with trilingual booklets, feature photographs by great (Magnum Cooperative) contemporary artists adorning the covers and a strong 'queen of colors' scheme, bringing to mind gods, kings, warriors, the devil, life, violence and death... Themes omnipresent in Baroque art!

Without doubt, Monteverdi was the greatest of the early baroque European composers. He revolutionized the music of the theatre and the church with his dramatic, imaginative use of voices and instruments, and with his daring harmonies and rhythms. Next to his Vespers of 1610, the Selva morale e spirituale of 1641 is his most significant and virtuosic collection of sacred music. Over the next few years, The Sixteen will record the complete publication with a variety of forces for CORO.

“The Sixteen under Harry Christophers respond with breathtaking assurance.” — Gramophone

‘Our main purpose for this recording,’ writes Masaaki Suzuki, ‘was to perform all the music contained in the collection that Monteverdi published in 1610.’ So he begins with the Missa In illo tempore, a superb example of old-style, elaborate polyphony; moves through the Vespers themselves, following the original order of the pieces and interpolating nothing; then, after the lavish Magnificat a 7, he ends with the more modest Magnificat a 6, which Monteverdi appended as an alternative.

This straightforward approach seems almost radical given the current glut of more fanciful versions, in which conductors reshuffle the Vespers, pepper them with antiphons and works by other composers and variously ‘adapt’ them to fit specific liturgical occasions. Such diverse interpretations make the choice of a benchmark recording highly subjective. Gardiner (dramatic, on Archiv) and Parrott (intimate and liturgically correct, on Virgin Veritas) offer fine, contrasting views, and several other versions (Christie, Garrido, Junghänel, Pickett) are well worth exploring.

This new set is consistently engaging. Unlike his rivals, Suzuki uses a high pitch of A=465Hz (common in Monteverdi’s Italy), but follows current thinking in transposing certain pieces down a fourth (the Missa, the Magnificats, ‘Lauda Jerusalem’). Performances throughout are expressive, sharply focused, intensely committed. Though he dispenses with liturgical trappings, Suzuki, aided by a spacious ‘churchy’ acoustic, certainly brings out the ritualistic and devotional character of the music, from the ornate orchestral splendour of the ‘Sonata sopra Sancta Maria’ to the tender vocal passions of ‘Pulchra es’ and ‘Duo Seraphim’. Excellent.

-- Graham Lock, BBC Music Magazine

Without doubt, Monteverdi was the greatest of the early baroque European composers. He revolutionised the music of the theatre and the church by his dramatic and imaginative use of voices and instruments and by his daring harmonies and rhythms. Next to his Vespers of 1610, the Selva morale e spirituale of 1641 is his most significant and virtuosic collection of sacred music. Monteverdi stretches every singer's versatility to the limit in this demanding but exhilarating music. Included on this final volume are the eight part Magnificat (Primo) - one of the most impressive of all Monteverdi's settings with the added richness of doubling strings; the old style Credidi and Memento featuring the full choir; and the exquisitely beautiful soprano solo, Pianto della Madonna 'Iam moriar, mi fili', performed here by Grace Davidson.

Monteverdi's Orfeo, first performed in 1607, generates a special excitement because it is the first unquestioned masterpiece of opera. Notable for it's precise orchestration and powerful drama it was a groundbreaking work. It concerns the legend of Orpheus, the demi-god whose music had the power to conquer the forces of Hell and to bring his wife back, briefly, to life. The extracts used in this introduction are from Naxos's full recording; it uses authentic period instruments, which serve to evoke the early Baroque period of the opera's composition.

John Butt and the Dunedin Consort present the 1610 Vespers in its customary order with no chant additions, accepting the view that this ‘work’ is a collection of sacred pieces deliberately ordered in the general shape of an ‘imaginary’ Vespers service. In other words, the Vespers as most people know it.

The result is a ‘chamber’ version in which clarity of detail and the beauty of individual voices (recorded fairly closely and in many places clearly recognisable) provide an alternative to the grand gestures and bold colours of other more monumental performances. It also allows for plenty of attention to text, not just in the solo motets but in the larger psalm-settings as well.

The sound is first-rate as ever from Linn, with a sampled Italian chest organ discreetly adding warmth and incisiveness. With so many Vespers recordings out there, this one joins the ranks of those with both a character of its own and something to say.

– Gramophone

Classical Music

Classical Music

THE FULL MONTEVERDI • Robert Hollingworth, cond; I Fagiolini • NAXOS 2.110224 (DVD: 60:00 Text and Translation)


MONTEVERDI Madrigals, Book 4


Monteverdi’s Fourth Book of Madrigals, published in 1603, is a setting of 19 poems by Arlotti, Gotti, Guarini, Moro, Rinuccini, Tasso, and Anonymous. Their only unity is the theme of separation, or the parting of lovers. While that is not much of a plot, an additional difficulty in creating a scenario out of these texts is the madrigal form, five voices singing polyphony. Moreover, due to the varying tessitura from one to the next, a set of madrigals usually uses a group of six voices. John La Bouchardière, an opera director who knew this Fourth Book since childhood (doubtless from the Raymond Leppard cassette), realized that six couples sitting in a restaurant might be sharing, separately but simultaneously, the experience of parting. He matched the six singers of I Fagiolini to six actors and created a theatrical presentation that was given almost 90 times from 2004 to 2006. The set for the performance venue was a restaurant, the six couples sitting at tables among the audience. A minimal performance provided only six tables, one couple at each. When it came time to film the performance, the soundtrack was first recorded, then the drama was videotaped. For video, the scene of the performance was not restricted to the restaurant. Flashbacks to scenes in the homes of the six couples and other locations were inserted. The singing partners among the six couples, assisted by the paired actors carrying out the thankless task of responding to the drama silently, actually sang along to the playback for verisimilitude. What began in the restaurant with six couples dissolving their relationships concluded strikingly back at the same location with six lonely individuals sitting at separate scattered tables.


Never mind the title, which is no more than a clever play on a recent stage musical, though it does suggest stripping bare the emotions as madrigals do. This is a remarkable way of realizing a book of madrigals that was never conceived to be heard this way. It’s highly successful, whether you watch with the English subtitles on or off. Not a word is spoken, for apart from ambient sound there is nothing to be heard but the singing, interrupted only by the briefest of pauses. The emotional expression on all the faces is convincing, an aspect that could easily have spoiled the effect. Repeated viewing will certainly reveal overlooked details, as the viewer becomes familiar with the dozen personalities that pop up in succession with some rapidity. Remember, six amorous breakups are unfolding simultaneously, the emotions and meanings of the madrigals applying equally to all of them. The production was made jointly for five national television systems and Naxos, and it has been broadcast since last autumn. This is a remarkably original conception, carried out with astonishing success. I have never realized the meaning of a set of madrigals as clearly as I did here.


FANFARE: J. F. Weber
-------------------

Picture format: NTSC 16:9
Sound format: Dolby Digital Stereo / Surround / DTS Surround
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: English
Running time: 60 mins

Monteverdi's Ninth Book of Madrigals, published posthumously, and the 1632 Scherzi musicali ('Musical Jokes') are thematically linked by the recurring theme of war for the sake of love. Prefaced with a Sinfonia by Biagio Marini and featuring one of Monteverdi's towering masterpieces, Zefiro torna, the Ninth Book comprises the few remaining late madrigals, a number of canzonette, as well as works with the same titles and verses from the earlier Eighth Book, here performed in completely different musical settings. Recorded complete, and in historically informed fashion, this is the final volume in the series. Italian early music ensemble Delitiae Musicae was established in 1992. The ensemble has been making recordings for over 20 years, and significant projects include Verdelot's Missa Philomena praevia, and four widely acclaimed albums dedicated to masses of Palestrina that were awarded the Choc du disque and the 9 de Repertoire in France.