Includes work(s) by Claudio Monteverdi. Ensemble: Delitiae Musicae. Conductor: Marco Longhini.

Monteverdi’s seminal first opera L’Orfeo, tells the dramatic story from Ovid’s Metamorphoses of the descent of Orfeo (Georg Nigl) into the underworld to recover his beloved wife Euridice (Roberta Invernizzi), seen here in a production for La Scala, based on a painting by Titian and directed by Robert Wilson. David Alden’s visually sumptuous production of L’incoronazione di Poppea, with its suggestions of a giant game of chess, puts the opera’s potent blend of sex and politics in a context that sets ancient against modern – just as the action juxtaposes scurrilous comedy and stark drama. Both are filmed in High Definition and recorded in true SS. "Robert Wilson meets Monteverdi with successful results." (The Opera Critic) "Beautifully flimed in Milan, this DVD shows how well Wilson's minimalist productions can take to the small screen." (Gramophone) "The drama comes from Alessandrini's edition and the bite and brilliance of the La Scala orchestra, and Concerto Italiano's inventive continuo section" (International Record Review) "Persson is a superb Poppea who can really act with her voice" (BBC Music Magazine)

Love conquers all, ruthlessly and irresistibly, as Emperor Nero and his mistress Poppea remove the obstacles to their union. At Barcelona's Gran Teatre del Liceu David Alden's visually sumptuous production, with it's suggestions of a giant game of chess, puts the opera's potent blend of sex and politics in a context that sets ancient against modern, just as the action juxtaposes scurrilous comedy and stark drama. Monteverdi's magnificent score, meanwhile, accommodates intrigue, wit, nobility, tragedy and sensuality, and, led by the intense Sarah Connolly and the delectable Miah Persson, the cast brings both drama and music startlingly to life.

This brand-new recording of Orfeo lacks thrills and grand vocal displays, and the results are beautiful indeed. Purposely eschewing what opera turned into within a half-century of this, the purported first entirely extant opera, Andrew Parrott, with 40 years of experience and scholarship under his belt, has opted to present a “favola in musica” rather than the later notation, a “dramma per musica”. The distinction is one of size, scope, and focus.

The performances that were given of Orfeo at the court of Mantua were neither fully-staged nor opulent; there is mention of a “curtain” but the room itself was salon-sized and the purpose of the event was to appreciate the combination of poetry and music. There were no singing stars; the purpose of the show was not virtuosity. It was an experiment for the heightening of the text by music.

With that in mind, this exquisite, delicate reading is a glorious alternative to, say, the Philip Pickett, René Jacobs, or Nikolaus Harnoncourt performances (let alone the heartbreaking Emmanuel Haim reading on Virgin), which are interested in Orfeo as a piece of theater, designed to “impress” and possibly stun. Parrott’s show places equal emphasis on the music and text—the words are delivered flawlessly, with strength where needed, but utterly devoid of melodrama. The drama is in the sadness of both words and music. It’s almost like Mozart in that respect: his operas rarely need to be “interpreted”; if the singers and players follow the music and text scrupulously, an effect will be made. It may not engender shock and awe, but the tale will be told, without over-emphasizing or exaggeration.

And that is what we get here. The first CD begins with the sound of a few people chattering, and the Gonzaga fanfare is first heard from a distance. Then it comes a bit closer—in a different key (this is not explained), which is a bit jarring but certainly makes us pay attention. The first voice we hear—La Musica—is that of countertenor David Hurley, perhaps the purest male adult voice I’ve ever heard (including Phillip Jaroussky’s). It is light as a feather, and music itself.

Charles Daniels is a wonderful Orfeo—sweet and gentle—and he handles the amazingly difficult “Possente spirto” and “Orfeo son io” in the third act beautifully, with every note clear and focused, but without any grandstanding. His legato (this entire performance is all about the unstoppability of music as exhibited by superb legato playing and singing from everyone) is a thing of wonder. Caronte, in the person of Curtis Streetman, also singing smoothly (and with a sensational trillo on the word “canto”), brings out some forte, impassioned pleading from Daniels’ Orefo—all the more effective since all else has been so understated.

Emily van Evera’s Messaggiera is a problem—her voice is too bright and she is too matter-of-fact for someone delivering such terrible news—but her Prosperina is so lovely that Christopher Purves’ Plutone must give in to her request. Faye Newton’s Eurydice is particularly effective in her final farewell, with its weird-and-weirder chromatic lines. Some might argue that the Infernal Spirits are not menacing enough; I would direct their attention to the accompaniment of the three trombones and two bass trombones, which add enough darkness to hide the sun. The only other concession to this being a staged work is the gradual disappearance of Apollo (finely sung by Guy Melc) and Orfeo near the opera’s close, since there is in fact a stage direction in the score that states that they “ascend”.

There are 29 instrumentalists, 14 of whom are string players; several of the singers play double roles. The harmonies in the choruses are spotless, with the men’s voices impeccably matched; this is some of the smoothest singing I’ve ever heard. Pitch is A=440 (most other recordings use A=465) which adds to the ease of production and mellow, sad telling of this well-known tale. The sound is pristine.

This may not be an only choice for a version of Orfeo; it’s an alternative, possibly thoroughly accurate reading of the favola. But its poetic approach is an ideal companion to the more aggressive, later 17th and early 18th century “operatic” readings mentioned above, with Haim’s probably first.

– Robert Levine, ClassicsToday.com

"This is now the best version of Monteverdi's Return of Ulysses" -- Anthony Pryer, BBC Music Magazine

CLAUDIO MONTEVERDI (1567 – 1643):
Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria, Dramma in musica in three acts

Kobie van Rensburg; Christine Rice; Cyril Auvity; Joseph Cornwell; Umberto Chiummo; Juan Sancho; Xavier Sabata; Ed Lyon; H. Bayodi-Nirt; Robert Burt; Marina Rodriguez-Cusí; Claire Debono; Luigi De Donato

Les Arts Florissants/William Christie

Pierluigi Pizzi, director; Roberto Maria Pizzuto, choreography
Recording: Teatro Real, Madrid, April 2009
NTSC All Region; DD 5.1/LPCM 2.0; 16:9; Approx. 175 mins.
Subtitled in Italian, English, German, French & Spanish

• Once again William Christie, Les Arts Florissants (celebrating their 30th anniversary at the time of this recording,) and Pier Luigi Pizzi converge as an inspired team in an exciting production.
• First Spanish performance of the opera on DVD and the second of the staged Monteverdi trilogy by the Teatro Real company, co-produced with La Fenice.
• This critically acclaimed new release of "L’Orfeo" on DVD has drawn worldwide attention.
• DVD includes interviews to W. Christie, K. van Rensburg and C. Rice.

"Last year we gave a performance here in the Teatro Real of Monteverdi’s Orfeo, this year we have Ulisse and next year Poppea. We’re no longer in Mantova and we’re no longer in the Court of the Prince. We’re in Venezia and essentially [at] the beginning of the public opera house. We’re also at the beginning of what will become opera seria, that’s to say beyond the instrumental colors, the great dances and the great pageants, [are] the beautiful effects of the singing, it’s bel-canto and so the orchestral accompaniment becomes simpler.
This is the essential difference between Orfeo and these last...two operas that were composed toward the end of his life. Orfeo is the beginning of the 17th century, the very beginning, the first ten years [and] he’s a young man, and Poppea and Ulisse are works of old age when he became a resident in Venezia. When Monteverdi was Maestro di Cappella of San Marco he is writing essentially for the new phenomenon, the Venetian opera house." - from William Christie’s interview 2008 included on in the DVD

MONTEVERDI: MADRIGALS, BOOKS 5

L’incoronazione di Poppea is a milestone in the history of music and the high point of the early baroque. This recording avails itself of an international cast and period instrument ensemble including established performers and young talents from Italy, France, Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, Albania, Colombia, Ecuador, Brazil, Mexico, China, Mongolia and Korea. Conductor Federico Bardazzi has analyzed the expressive aspects of the score so that the music would bring out the nature of the characters and has worked on the variety of tone colour available in the basso continuo associated with the “affetti” throughout the opera and hence the association of particular instruments with the main characters. The instrumental arrangements are highly diversified, ranging from sopranino and guitar, through passages for strings only to exuberant tutti sections with percussion. A hallmark of Bardazzi's approach to performance of 17th century repertoire is the interaction of treble instruments with voices in choral numbers, duets, versified pieces and airs and also foregrounding those instruments in certain sections of the opera identified with a given character. The many tone colours of this broad palette valorize the instrumental writing in the vocal numbers, which is in keeping with the dictates of Monteverdi's seconda prattica.

Anna Lucia Richter returns to PENTATONE after her acclaimed Schubert album Heimweh with Il delirio della passione; a recording full of Monteverdi treasures, from heart-wrenching opera scenes (Lamento d’Arianna, ‘Pur ti miro’ from Poppea and the Prologue of L’orfeo) and religious music (Confitebor) to bucolic songs (Si dolce è il tormento). Richter works together with Ensemble Claudiana and Luca Pianca, one of the most eminent Monteverdi interpreters of our age. They offer a fresh perspective on Monteverdi’s music by penetrating deeply into the original sources. Their interpretation of the famous Lamento d’Arianna, salvaged fragment of the lost score of the opera L’Arianna, is exemplary in that regard. Richter’s passionate delivery is inspired by what precedes in the libretto, while Pianca has composed short, “madrigalistic” instrumental interludes between the solo sections, replacing the choral commentaries, of which only the original texts have survived. Altogether, the pieces on Il delirio della passione demonstrate Monteverdi’s exceptional skill to express the most complex emotions, in music of timeless beauty. Anna Lucia Richter belongs to the most exciting young singers of her generation. Il delirio della passione is the second fruit of her exclusive collaboration with PENTATONE, after Heimweh (2018), and her last soprano recording, as she will continue her career as a mezzo-soprano. Luca Pianca and Ensemble Claudiana both make their PENTATONE debut.

REVIEW:

Some purists won’t like Luca Pianca’s approach to unwritten ornamentation, which allows the virtuoso members of the Ensemble Claudiana unbridled freedom, and some may cavil at his imaginative and at times almost cavalier attitude to instrumentation. But there is no doubting the freshness of Pianca’s interpretative stance.

Richter’s bright, clean, focused tone, precise diction and keen sense of drama will be familiar from her performances in an impressively wide-ranging portfolio, stretching from Schubert lieder to Mahler’s Wunderhorn songs, and Idomeneo to Henze’s Elegy for Young Lovers.

The heart of her achievement on this recording is undoubtedly the lament from Arianna. With its sure-footed command of the patterns and cadences of the Italian language, this is a powerful reading. It is surely the only serious competition in the catalogue to Cathy Berberian’s classic performance with Nikolaus Harnoncourt from the 1970s.

– Gramophone

Listen to the Naxos Podcast to learn more about this release

The Eighth Book of Madrigals, subdivided into a substantial series of vocal and instrumental partbooks, contains some of Monteverdi's greatest music. In this sumptuous collection the material is carefully arranged by category into madrigals of war, love and those for the stage, with a wide array of human passions and compositional styles. This is the first recording to present Book Eight in its original, uncut form, also incorporating instrumental sinfonias and dances by Biagio Marini to round off Monteverdi's design. In keeping with seventeenth-century practice, the madrigals are performed entirely by male voices, including a boy soprano in the role of Cupid.

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REVIEWS:

The quality of the performances is extremely high. Technical prowess is always in the service of the music, and Marco Longhini is not averse to pushing his all-male ensemble to extremes of slow or fast tempos or to special vocal effects. Another strength of this excellent interpretation is the size and scope of the instrumental forces. There are 9 players in the continuo group, a further 9 in a mostly string ensemble (including 2 recorders), and a viola da gamba quartet. This gives Marco Longhini a very wide palette to draw on for dramatic power, theatrical variety, and evocative effect.

– American Record Guide

As Longhini has pointed out in previous releases, the instruments to be used is largely left to the performers, and in the composer’s day would probably have depended on those available. In this series of discs he has opted for a ‘middle-of-the-road’ approach, so as not to become ornate, yet providing more that an obliging backdrop. In the vocal group there are, of course, no female voices in music of that period, so that much rests on the shoulders of the outstanding countertenor, Alessandro Carmignani. Yet again I will heap praise on the sonorous bass voice of Walter Testolin, his deep voice is an earthy delight. Solos permeate all of the madrigals, and when numerous voices are used, the Delitiae’s blend is pure joy. Longhini's approach throughout this series has that feel of dedication and authenticity, the music continually intriguing, immediately likeable, and, in every way, it has been a wonderful experience with this as its crowning glory. The engineers have once again played their part in the clarity of texture they have created. It is terribly sad that it is coming to an end, but there remains just one more book, the unfinished Ninth, that was published after the composers death.

– David's Review Corner (David Denton)

TENET Vocal Artists, NYC’s pre-eminent early music ensemble, releases an album of the final performance of its Green Mountain Project. For the past ten years, the Green Mountain Project has been made up of some of the best Baroque specialists in the United States for concerts of Claudio Monteverdi’s iconic Vespers of 1610 (Vespro della Beata Vergine). This live recording is a culmination of years of musical collaborations, and a celebration of the artists and supporters who made the past decade of performances possible. The Green Mountain Project began its tenure with the first performance to honor the 400th anniversary of Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 publication on Sunday, January 3, 2010. Spearheaded by artistic director Jolle Greenleaf and music director Scott Metcalfe, the concert was offered free to the public, and received a rave review from The New York Times. Ten years later, The New York Times published another article, this time celebrating the decade of performances that followed this initial concert. During the project’s decade history, the Green Mountain Project performed Monteverdi’s works in New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts to glowing reviews, sold-out audiences, and in radio broadcasts. The cast of the Green Mountain Project features America’s best early music vocal and instrumental specialists, including Dark Horse Consort brass ensemble.

Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo is naturally an iconic work for Leonardo García Alarcón. The Argentinian conductor has performed and matured his interpretation of Monteverdi’s masterpiece throughout his life. Together with his group of soloists, the Namur Chamber Choir and the Cappella Mediterranea ensemble, he now presents his vision of L’Orfeo: Monteverdi’s opera is as much the apotheosis of the Renaissance as a testimony to the nascent Baroque style. This is what strikes us when we listen to this new recording, which so eloquently emphasizes the contrasts between sometimes nostalgic glances towards the past and the most innovative expressions of operatic language. The printed score, published two years after the premiere in Mantua in 1607, offers contrasts too: is it the snapshot of a specific performance or a ‘blueprint’ intended for future performers? In fact, it is both, and that is where we find the tricky questions that must be answered by those who open this precious document; Leonardo García Alarcón does so here in a manner at once respectful, inventive and theatrical.

The first masterpiece of sacred music is undoubtedly the mythical Vespers of Monteverdi, first published in Venice in 1610. Quintessential of the great Italian polychoral style of writing, with its choirs, initially distributed throughout the entire volume of the Basilica San Marco for spectacular effects, the Vespers are here raised to the heavenly spheres by Raphael Pichon: every aspect of the Royal Chapel of Versailles (1710) is being put to use to magnify the music echoing from the Royal Tribune to that of the Great Organ. The Pygmalion choir and orchestra stands flawless, the soloists are overwhelming and the emotional power released by this interpretation set in space and light is stunning: its beauty seems never ending. The choral monumental piece by Monteverdi, which crystallizes the height of the baroque, meets the highest standards defended by Raphaël Pichon. To be more intimate with God than ever before...

This is a lovely recording. It is always good to be reminded of Monteverdi's third extant opera and the least well known of the three. It's also a sad reminder of how much of his work has been lost. However, this recording gave me a lot of pleasure. There aren't as many recordings out there of Ulisse as there are of Orfeo or Poppea. It has structural flaws which probably place it below its two companions, but what is represented here is excellent.

Martin Pearlman has made his own performing version of the score, working from the only surviving manuscript copy. He explains his editing decisions in the booklet note, and you can also hear him talk about it at length, if you're interested. You'd need to be a greater expert than I am to pick out any major differences from pre-existing versions. Suffice to say that Pearlman makes his own decisions about how to fill in the gaps that have been left in the score.

The result is a labor of love in which he has invested much of his time, energy and passion, and that comes across in what you hear. He has also assembled a team who have bought into his vision completely, performing with passion and total commitment. Central to the sound-world of the recording is the playing of Boston Baroque, Pearlman's own band. They sound as marvelous as their other recordings have led me to expect. There is a slightly acidic quality to their sound but it is very energetic and full of affection. This is a score, and an edition, that Pearlman knows well and wants to bring to life with beauty and affection. There were innumerable touches that brought it to fruition, such as the chattering brightness that the winds often brought to proceedings. Pearlman's way with the dance music is very convincing. I also loved vitality of the score for the brief pastoral scene at the opening of Act 2, full of tremendous verve. The orchestral accompaniment to the gods' scene in the third act also sounds very fine. Throughout the opera there is a focus on beauty above all. This never undermines the drama, however, and many little touches bring that to the fore over and over again.

The singing cast is excellent, too. Fernando Guimarães is magnificent as Ulisse himself. His voice is passionate, ardent and fully committed, a delight in this role which he makes sound totally human. His mannerisms are technically very impressive too. He knows and loves the style of the period, which makes him a first-rate travelling companion for Pearlman's vision. Jennifer Rivera's Penelope is, if anything, even better. Hers is a low, slightly husky voice but I fell for it completely. Her portrayal of the queen is sensual and dignified but deeply felt, and her opening lament is something that not just welcomes you into the opera but gets you hooked. She is equally fine during the climactic scene of Act 2 when she presents Ulysses' bow to the suitors for the contest, full of possibility but also ample regret. The greatest moment in the opera comes in the final recognition duet, where the voices of Guimarães and Rivera blend beautifully while the orchestra spins a beatific web of sound around them. It's a magnificent ending to the disc.

Aaron Sheehan is a dashing, youthful-sounding Telemaco, who sings with ardour and passion, linking him with but setting him apart from the sound of his father. As Melanto, Abigail Nims is energetic and skittish, a strong contrast to Penelope. Their duet towards the end of Act 1 is beautiful, not least due to the contributions of the Boston Baroque strings. Daniel Shirley's Eurimaco manages to convey much of the character's duplicity, and his voice blends beautifully with Nims'. Daniel Auchincloss is a surprisingly virile, affectionate Eumete, while Marc Molomot cuts a slightly ironic, rather unpleasant figure as Iro, but at least he knows that the part is little more than a comic caricature. The trio of suitors are surprisingly sympathetic, and their Act 2 trio with Penelope (Ama dunque, sì, sì) is very beguiling. Antinous has an eerie resonance, however, and Ulysses Thomas' resonant bass brings him to life very compellingly.

The gang of gods are also very convincing. João Fernandes is a rich, boomy Neptune - beautifully accompanied, first by the buzzing organ then by endearingly chattering cornetts - while Owen McIntosh's tenor makes a surprisingly young-sounding, vigorous Jupiter. Leah Wool is at first slightly warbly as Minerva, but she sounds more comfortable as the opera progresses. Sonja DuToit Tengblad is a bright, sparkly Juno. The Prologue, too, sets the tone for the rest of the opera to come: bouncy and full of life; not at all a mere forethought. The chorus don't have much to do, but what they have is done very well with lots of energy and bounce.

Even aside from its unique qualities, this Ulisse sits pretty close to the top of the available recordings that I've heard. Its studio perfection is more welcoming than Alan Curtis' live version, for all its merits, and, while I acknowledge his importance, I've never been able to love Harnoncourt's version which sounds paradoxically wilful and underdone in places. René Jacobs typically has his own quirks and, for once, I thought they worked rather well, but I now rate Pearlman's version very highly too. Definitely worth a look for Monteverdians old and new.

– MusicWeb International (Simon Thompson)

There are indeed many recordings of Monteverdi’s Vespers of the Blessed Virgin, but the special thing about this particular recording is that it was produced following the performances of a scenic interpretation with the Spanish stage director Calixto Bieito. What now follows is a musical exploration forming a sequel to scenic occupation with the Vespers. Since 2017 Il Gusto Barocco has been the guest ensemble for the four-part Monteverdi cycle initiated by opera director Albrecht Puhlmann at the Mannheim National Theater. From the musician’s perspective, the scenic exploration of music rooted in the liturgy does in fact clearly differ from a performance during a religious service or a non-scenic concert performance. During the time-intensive process prior to the staging of an opera, scenes, images, and figures gradually take shape. In each stage figure the quest is for an emotional truth from which her or his artistic nature, aesthetic character, and credibility result – and ultimately word and tone, in order to produce empathy and engage the public. Another important aspect of this recording is the great number of diminutions in all the instrumental and vocal parts, all of which were improvised at the particular moment. During the shared scenic preparation for the opera stage, the individual movements of the Marian Vespers obtained a definite emotional space in the dramaturgical sequence. Accordingly, sections and their basic characters were defined and invented at the particular moment for each performance and for this recording.

Classical Music

Two highly dramatic short works by Monteverdi, Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda and Ballo delle ingrate are performed by distinguished French soloists with Jean-Claude Malgoire directing La Grande Ecurie et La Chambre du Roy.

L’Orfeo by Claudio Monteverdi (1567–1643) is often described as the first opera. The composer himself used another term for his work, however: ‘favola in musica’, a musical tale. Taking this as their point of departure, the performers on the present recording place the emphasis on the libretto’s direct narrative, and how the music alone is used to express emotions, a music which underpins the plot and the text word for word. To quote the liner notes: ‘To modern ears the musical heritage of L’Orfeo is more to be found in the Lieder tradition than in the grand opera of the nineteenth century.’ The tale told by Monteverdi and the members of the three ensembles which bring his score to life, is that of Orpheus, the poet and musician who travels to the Underworld in order to persuade Hades to let his beloved Eurydice return to the living. Under the direction of Fredrik Malmberg, and with Johan Linderoth as their Orfeo, the 38 singers and musicians that make up Ensemble Lundabarock, Höör Barock and Ensemble Altapunta perform a score which in 1607 was state-of-the-art contemporary. Four full centuries after the first performance in Mantua it remains almost shockingly modern, as in the sound of cornetts and trombones that summon up the spirits of the Underworld or the portrayal of undiluted, raw grief in Orfeo’s celebrated aria Possente Spirto.

REVIEW:

Recordings of early Baroque opera from Scandinavia are not common; this one, from a collection of Swedish and Finnish groups led by keyboardist Fredrik Malmberg, may be the first recording from the region of Monteverdi's pioneering opera L'Orfeo. It's quite fresh and is unusually compelling for general audiences, for whom this five-act opera may sometimes be a slog. The famous "Possente spirto" from Act III, is no formulaic prayer but a strikingly powerful moment that matches the text to Monteverdi's musico-dramatic innovations. The all-Scandinavian cast, led by Johan Linderoth as Orfeo, responds nimbly to Malmberg's intentions, and there is not really a moment when the dramatic momentum flags. This can be recommended not only to collectors of early Baroque recordings but to general listeners, for whom it would make a splendid introduction to the opera.

– AllMusicGuide.com (James Manheim)

Classical Music

Rinaldo Alessandrini is one of today’s most eminent Monteverdi authorities, and his highly acclaimed recordings with Concerto Italiano are now widely recognised as a reference point for music lovers all over the world. Recent achievements include the completion of Monteverdi’s trilogy of operas (directed by Robert Wilson) at La Scala in Milan and at the Opéra National de Paris, and a triumphal concert tour in Australia and New Zealand with the Vespro della Beata Vergine. To mark the 450th anniversary of Claudio Monteverdi’s birth, Arcana is proud to reissue the seminal recording of the Sixth Book of Madrigals performed by Concerto Italiano, which is also one of Arcana’s bestsellers. Rinaldo Alessandrini describes the Sixth Book as the book of separation: permanent in the case of death; temporary in the case of lovers at daybreak. It is the book of poignant expression which culminates in the cycles of lamenti, whose autobiographical character is well known: the successive deaths of Monteverdi’s wife (Claudia Cattaneo) and his favourite singer (Caterina Martinelli). Its density of expression, its ‘italianità’, not exempt from theatricality, by turns luminous and despairing, make it the place where interpretation is the fundamental element, capable of overwhelming our contemporaries.

This DVD is accompanied by Harry Christophers and The Sixteen's  audio recording of Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610 (COR16126). In the BBC documentary, actor and former chorister Simon Russell Beale invites us into the heart of the Vespers and the world of their creator. It is the story of a Renaissance Duke and the composer who worked for him - and how their volatile relationship would create one of the most revolutionary and beautiful collections of music ever published: The Monteverdi Vespers of 1610.

Classical Music

Harry Christophers writes: 'Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610 is quite simply one of the greatest works of sacred music ever written and without doubt the most varied and inspired before Handel and Bach began composing their oratorios and passions. Where it was written, why it was written and who it was written for are actually immaterial - suffice it to say it was quite simply his calling card for the big job, Choirmaster at the resplendent Basilica of St Mark in Venice. Its variety alone makes it unique - thrilling psalm settings with virtuosic writing for both multi-part choir and instrumentalists to exotic and sensual settings of texts from the Song of Songs for solo voices. Every movement is full of luscious harmonies, drama and an evocative musical language which is so beautifully constructed for all concerned. 'There has been much scholarly debate about the pitch of Lauda Jerusalem and the Magnificat. These are notated in the part books in a combination of "high" (chiavetti) clefs which dictates a downward transposition of a fourth. For this recording I decided to include both versions, one at high pitch and one at low, so that you the listener can determine your own preference.'

MONTEVERDI Madrigals, Book 7 • Marco Longhini, dir; Delitiae Musicae • NAXOS 8.555314 (3 CDs: 162:45 Text and Translation)


Following the first six books of madrigals (30:2, 31: 2), with the rest promised in due course, Longhini’s new Book 7 was recorded in a single week using his new critical edition, the first since Malapiero’s in 1932. This is only the fourth complete recorded set of the collection that was published in 1619 as “Concerto,” preceded by Raymond Leppard issued in 1977 (3:2), Roberto Gini in 1989 (14: 1), and Claudio Cavina in 1998 (26:4). While Leppard was working on his recordings, Michel Corboz made eight LPs of madrigals drawn from all the books, including 17 of Book 7’s 29 pieces. It is remarkable that the timings of the four sets have lengthened with each new version, though the two most nearly alike (Gini and Cavina) are less than a minute apart overall. For Longhini, this is not unexpected, for the tempos in all of his previous discs have been longer than most of the alternatives.


Book 7 was the last Leppard set to appear on Philips, and the LPs were not even issued in England, perhaps because the previous sets had been received less than enthusiastically. His six complete books, recorded for Philips from 1969 to 1975, were issued in a box of eight CDs only in 1998, although in the first year of the CD EMI had reissued the much older recordings that he had made for them. There is a connection between the other two sets, for Cavina had been a member of Gini’s group (he then joined Rinaldo Alessandrini’s group, which has still not recorded Book 7, before forming his own ensemble).


Book 7 was a remarkable advance over Monteverdi’s first six books, which were all set for five voices. The title page for this book made clear the break by specifying madrigals for one, two, three, four, and six voices together with other kinds of sung works. Longhini’s notes are illuminating, for he has learned much in preparing his own edition from the 1619 edition and four reprints, as well as from the original published texts of the poems. He cites Claudio Gallico’s statement that the pieces are arranged in a “carefully calculated and finely balanced” way, setting it against Cavina’s reordering of the pieces in his recording (the only one of the four to do so). He explains in detail the errors that he has corrected not only in Malapiero’s edition but also in the original.


Longhini’s ensemble consists of seven male voices (two countertenors on the top lines) with 15 players. Each track specifies the participants. He defends the use of a countertenor in “Lettera amorosa,” more often (but by no means always) sung by a woman, for the poet himself specified that the letter is being read by the impatient writer, not the recipient. Apart from what his group sings is the matter of how the group sings. As noted in previous reviews, Longhini’s tempos reflect a preference for expression and harmonic subtlety over speed and agility. His all-male ensemble requires downward transposition. His use of instruments, optional in most of the earlier works, is no longer an issue now in works that specify them, even calling for two flutes in “A quest’olmo.” A total timing more than 15 percent slower than the other two modern sets (even greater with respect to Leppard) seems enormous, but it is not. To be sure, “A quest’olmo” is the only piece that is not the slowest of the four versions, but only three or four pieces are notably slower than the competition. This is simply a more relaxed interpretation, made more obvious only because it spills over to a third disc.


The singers are remarkably fine, and the new edition deserves close attention. His current competition, of course, is Cavina, who doubtless defends the contrast that he provides by choosing a different order for the selections. He also has a splendid group of singers and a deluxe presentation, if slightly more expensive. There are clear differences between the interpretations of Cavina and Longhini, but each is worth a serious hearing.


FANFARE: J. F. Weber

After Stravaganza d'amore, their superb album of late sixteenth-century Florentine music, Raphaël Pichon and Pygmalion returned to Italy, this time to Mantua. Here they offer us their reading of one of the peaks of sacred music from this period: Monteverdi's Vespers. Revealing like no other interpreters the poignant interiority of these pieces, they bring out to the full their inherent sense of theatre for an overwhelming experience.

Claudio Monteverdi was a musical revolutionary who championed the new style of music that replaced intricate Renaissance counterpoint with the more theatrical music of the early Baroque. Yet he was a master in both these styles, as this selection.