MONTEVERDI: MADRIGALS, BOOKS 5

Presenting books 3 and 4 of Monteverdi’s madrigals, this release is the latest installment of the Complete Madrigals cycle by Le Nuove Musiche.; These works move from a Renaissance style to a more emotional and expressive way of setting the texts. This causes the works on this album to be much more moving and impactful.; Le Nuove Musiche is led by conductor Krijn Koetsveld, and is made up of the elite of Dutch Early Music vocalists. The first installment in this edition, Books 5 and 6, received a five star rating in the French Diapason.

Le Nuove Musiche, led by acclaimed director Krijn Koetsveld, continue with their exceptional series of Claudio Monteverdi's complete madrigals. This time they turn their attention to Book VIII, the intriguingly entitled Madrigali guerrieri et amorosi (Madrigals of Love and War), published four years after Monteverdi's death. These two contrasting themes divide the book into two halves; first war, then love. There's more corssover than might be expected: the first half of warlike madrigals ends with the tragic Il combattiment odi Tancredi e Clorinda, based on Torquato Tasso's poem which sees Tancredi fighting a disguised Clorida, fatally injuring her before realizing that it is a fair maiden rather than a male foe. Despite nearing the end of his life, Monteverdi still demonstrates his knack for innovation, experimenting freely with the gentre of the madrigal in the new context of the basso continuo. Le Nuove Musiche's approach to Monteverdi is an innovative one: to bring the past into the present, keeping alive the questions of the Renaissance that still permeate oru musical landscape today, while seeking to maintain the highest standards of performance authenticity. Their release of Books V & VI garnered excellent reviews, including five stars in the French magazine Diapason.

With this recording the acclaimed ensemble Le Nuove Musiche, led by director Krijn Koetsveld, have come full circle and at last completed their monumental undertaking of a complete cycle of Claudio Monteverdi's books of madrigals. In bringing this endeavour to a close the group have returned to their starting point, recording a fresh take of perhaps the most famous set, Monteverdi's groundbreaking Books V & VI, previously released by Le Nuove Musiche one decade ago at the start of this musical journey. With these two books of madrigals Monteverdi unequivocally made his forward-thinking position clear in the heated debate over musical aesthetics that had been raging fiercely in Florentine artistic circles. Defying his critics, he distanced himself from conservative practices by declaring his own methods a 'second practice', the seconda prattica. He abandoned the confines of a single mode, freely adding piquant dissonance to underpin emotionally charged words in the text, thus heightening the drama. He also began exploiting the basso continuo as an independent harmonic foundation for melody - the dawn of monody, a solo-and-accompaniment style that would surpass polyphony as the basis for the music of so many later generations of composers. Le Nuove Musiche's approach to Monteverdi is both dedicated and informed. They bring the past into the present, considering questions that were asked in the Renaissance and are still relevant in our present musical landscape, thereby making Early Music as new today as any other, while maintaining the highest standards of performance authenticity.

The genre “canzonette” is the light version of the madrigal: using only 3 voices it is playful and popular in character, based on secular poems in a strophic form of three or four verses with ritornello. Monteverdi composed his “Canzonette a tre voci” when he was seventeen years old, in order to gain recognition with a wider audience, and they have proven to be a perfect preparation for the more serious and complex works he later embarked upon such as the madrigals and the operas. These delightful works are performed with the right light hearted mood and dramatic impact by Armoniosoincanto, conducted by Franco Radicchia, using a rich continuo ensemble consisting of flutes, viola da braccia, viola da gamba, theorbo, baroque guitar and harpsichord.

Le Nuove Musiche, a vibrant young ensemble from the Netherlands, specializes in music from the first half of the 17th century. While seeking to maintain authentic performance standards, the ensemble brings the music very much into the present, arguing that artistic questions of the past still permeate the musical landscape today. Featuring a captivating group of solo singers, who between them have performed with the Amsterdam Baroque Choir and The Bach Choir & Orchestra of The Netherlands, the ensemble is headed by Krijn Koetsveld, leader and harpsichordist, who has previously collaborated with the Groot Omroepkoor and the prestigious Netherlands Chamber Choir. This is the second of a planned release of Claudio Monteverdi's complete madrigals. The fifth and sixth book - already released on Brilliant Classics as 93799 - were the first to break with tradition and herald 'la seconda pratica', the era of the basso continuo. From then on, the publication of Monteverdi's innovative settings were eagerly awaited, as they set the stage for more instrumental ritornellos, a newly important basso continuo and the addition of ornamentation around the bass and vocal parts. The book finishes with a ballo, Tirsi e Clori, a love duet with a five-part accompaniment, highly elaborate, with a chatty Tirsi contrasting with a sweet and melodic Clori. When the two singers come together with the rest of the ensemble, the listener is treated to the pinnacle of the madrigal era. This new installment of the Monteverdi Complete Madrigals contains the complete Book VII, on two CD's. Monteverdi is the Master of the Madrigal, the unaccompanied vocal composition for up to 5 voices, on secular texts. Monteverdi developed the Renaissance form of a static, strictly polyphonic setting into a dramatic work in which the expression of feeling is prominent, paving the way for the Baroque Monody, the setting of a solo melody to the accompaniment of the other voices. The range of sentiments, the boldness of harmony and counterpoint and the dramatic impact of these works mark Monteverdi as one of the first geniuses of Western Music. In the 7th Book Monteverdi breaks away from the traditional Madrigal. The set contains vocal duets with more instrumental ritornellos in concertante style, a complex worked-out bass and highly developed ornamentation of the vocal lines. The vocal ensemble Le Nuove Musiche consists of the elite of Dutch Early Music vocalists, led by eminent conductor and scholar Krijn Koetsveld. Their first Monteverdi recording, the Books 5 & 6 (BC93799) received excellent reviews in the international press, among which a "5 star" in the French Diapason. The extensive booklet notes include texts on the works as well as the complete sung texts in Italian and English.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

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.

In 1650, seven years after Claudio Monteverdi’s death, the Venetian publisher Alessandro Vincenti, with the help of Francesco Cavalli, a student and successor of Monteverdi, decided to put together the compilation Messa a quattro voci et salmi. It was a unique tribute to Monteverdi. In an era when looking back was not fashionable, the preservation of written music was rare, and for the most part the names of dead musicians were quickly forgotten, Monteverdi’s fame seemed to persist for a long time.

In 1641, Monteverdi himself had compiled the collection Selva Morale et Spirituale. Perhaps he considered these to be the great treasures of his oeuvre. But there must have been many more. After all, music was always written for the Liturgy of the Hours (Liturgia Horarum) and for special occasions, and Monteverdi was not excepted from this practice. Cavalli and Vincenti had plenty to choose from when putting together this beautiful compilation, to which Cavalli added his own Magnificat.

Alongside the Messa a quattro –church music in the old contrapuntal style – there is a lot of other beautiful music. We find the Confitebor in two different versions (Monteverdi was constantly modifying existing pieces) which gives us a nice insight into how he worked.

We also know that Monteverdi looked back to the old contrapuntal techniques in his church music. The Laudate pueri, Laetatus sum, Nisi Dominus II and the Lauda Jerusalem for 5 voices are good examples of this. In contrast to this are the works where he looked forwards, where he translated the concertante practice into psalms such as Nisi Dominus I and the intoxicating Beatus vir. In the Laetatus sum, he lets the infinite possibilities over an infinitely repeating bass be heard. The second CD begins with a mass that was written as an opening piece for the Marian Vespers: the Messa in illo tempore. And with this, we complete the circle. In 1610 Monteverdi began a church-music career that to the end of his life was notable for the enormous variety of styles he employed. We should be grateful that Cavalli and Vincenti, perhaps driven by commercial interests, left us this extra treasure.

Classical Music

The further Rinaldo Alessandrini advanced in his demanding and exhaustive quest, the more he discovered and mastered the inexhaustible richness of a musical art intimately linked to the theatre and the emotions. “A theatre”, he says, “made of humanity, of aspiring to the sublime and the joyful resolution of life’s sorrows through love, the curative power of song and the energetic exaltation of dance.” Today, the Italian conductor and harps chordist is one of the undisputed masters of this exceptional vocal heritage, the best-loved of which is the famous book VIII devoted to madrigals of love and war, with the Combattimento de Tancredi e Clorinda, the Lamento de la ninfa and Hor che ’l ciel et la terra, book VI with its Lamento d’Arianna and Zefiro torna, voted Editor’s Choice by Gramophone, and book II, winner of a Gram phone Award. All the subtlety of the intimate intermingling of text and music unfolds, in ever renewed variety. Each recording has also contributed to the methodical, fascinating and detailed construction of a personal vision of Monteverdi’s work, aided by the unfailing commitment and inspired voices of Concerto Italiano. These recordings of the whole opus, with the addition of two hitherto unpublished books, complete a monumental work, already widely and unanimously praised, and also crown a Monteverdi cycle which began at the Barcelona Liceu in 2021.

This substantial set dedicated to the vocal music of Claudio Monteverdi (1567–1643) features the great cycle undertaken (to date) by Krijn Koetsveld and the singers of Le Nuove Musiche: all nine books of madrigals, the music in Monteverdi collections such as the Selva Morale e Spirituale (1641), the posthumous Messa a quattro voci ed salmi (1650), and the individual works by Monteverdi compiled in the collections of others, the so-called Fragments. To this is joined the cycle of operas directed by Sergio Vartolo and sung by casts of Italian early music specialists, including the first recording of the five-act version of Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria.

These thoroughly researched, historically informed interpretations demonstrate Monteverdi’s pioneering and transformative role in the emergence and development of staged, dramatic vocal music. Also featured are the grand Vespers – sacred music in the Gregorian plainchant tradition but on an operatic scale – in a fantastic recording with fine Italian soloists and authentic period instruments including the early brass of La Pifarescha. Federico Bardazzi and Ensemble Felice make scrupulous interpretative decisions about the order of movements, interpolating the choral motets within the prescribed sequence of psalms to great effect. Finally, there are Monteverdi’s youthful three-part canzonettas, written when the composer was 17. They are rather simpler than the madrigals, both to sing and to appreciate, but their musical worth is amply demonstrated by the largely female voices of Armoniosoincanto joined by a mixed period-instrument ensemble of flutes, violas, theorbo and harpsichord. They impart just the right light-hearted mood and dramatic impact to the playful, folkloric secular strophic poetry.

CONTENTS:

• Monteverdi: Il primo libro de madrigali, 1587
• Monteverdi: Il secondo libro de madrigali, 1590
• Monteverdi: Il terzo libro de madrigali, 1592
• Monteverdi: Il quarto libro de madrigali, 1603
• Monteverdi: Il quinto libro de madrigali, 1605
• Monteverdi: Il sesto libro de madrigali, 1614
• Monteverdi: Il settimo libro de madrigali, 1619 'Concerto'
• Monteverdi: Il ottavo libro de madrigali, 1638 'Madrigali guerrieri et amorosi'
• Monteverdi: Il nono libro de madrigali, 1651
• Monteverdi: O ciechi il tanto affaticar, SV 252
• Monteverdi: Voi ch'ascoltate
• Monteverdi: È questa vita un lampo
• Monteverdi: Spuntava il dì, SV 255
• Monteverdi: Chi vol che m’innamori
• Monteverdi: Confitebor tibi III alla francese, SV267
• Monteverdi: Gloria a 7, SV 258
• Monteverdi: Crucifixus, SV 259
• Monteverdi: Pianto della Madonna 'Iam moriar, mi fili' (sopra il Lamento dell'Arianna), SV 288
• Monteverdi: Et resurrexit, a quattro
• Monteverdi: Et iterum
• Monteverdi: Laudate Dominum in sancta Eius
• Monteverdi: Salve Regina, SV 285
• Monteverdi: Laudate Dominum
• Monteverdi: Beatus vir (from Selva Morale e Spirituali)
• Monteverdi: Sanctorum meritis (Primo)
• Monteverdi: Dixit [Dominus] Primo
• Monteverdi: Ab aeternum, SV 262
• Monteverdi: Confitebor tibi Domine, SV266
• Monteverdi: Memento Domine David
• Monteverdi: Laudate pueri Primo
• Monteverdi: Salve Regina, SV 284
• Monteverdi: Laudate Dominum omnes gentes II
• Monteverdi: Magnificat Primo
• Monteverdi: Gloria (1641)
• Monteverdi: Dixit Dominus secondo a8 SV 192
• Monteverdi: Deus tuorum militum sors et corona
• Monteverdi: Confitebor tibi, Domine
• Monteverdi: Iste confessor
• Monteverdi: Beatus vir (second setting)
• Monteverdi: Ut queant laxis, hymnus sancti Joannis
• Monteverdi: Laudate pueri (Secondo)
• Monteverdi: Deus tuorum militum sors et corona
• Monteverdi: Credidi propter quod locutus sum, SV 275
• Monteverdi: Jubilet a voce sola in dialogo
• Monteverdi: Magnificat (Secondo)
• Monteverdi: Salve Regina
• Monteverdi: Laudate Dominum
• Monteverdi: Canzonette
• Monteverdi: Vespro della beata Vergine (1610)
• Monteverdi: Cantate Domino
• Monteverdi: O beatae viae
• Monteverdi: Currite populi
• Monteverdi: Ego flos campi
• Monteverdi: Venite, venite
• Monteverdi: Christe, adoramus te
• Monteverdi: O quam pulchra es
• Monteverdi: Salve Regina
• Monteverdi: Fuge, anima mea
• Monteverdi: Sancta Maria
• Monteverdi: Domine, ne il furore
• Monteverdi: Ego dormio
• Monteverdi: Ecce sacrum paratum
• Monteverdi: Salve Regina
• Monteverdi: O bone Jesu, o piissime Jesu
• Monteverdi: En gratulemur hodie, SV 302
• Monteverdi: Laudate Dominum omnes gentes
• Monteverdi: Adoramus te, Christe
• Monteverdi: Messa a 4 voci da Cappella (1650)
• Monteverdi: Dixit [Dominus] Primo
• Monteverdi: Confitebor tibi, Domine
• Monteverdi: Nisi Dominus a 6, SV201
• Monteverdi: Laudate pueri
• Monteverdi: Laetatus sum
• Monteverdi: Lauda Jerusalem a 3, SV202
• Monteverdi: Beatus vir (from Selva Morale e Spirituali)
• Monteverdi: Magnificat Primo
• Monteverdi: Missa 'In illo tempore' (1610)
• Monteverdi: Dixit Dominus II
• Monteverdi: Confitebor tibi Domine II, SV194
• Monteverdi: Nisi Dominus a 6, SV201
• Monteverdi: Laudate Dominum, SV197a
• Monteverdi: Laetatus sum
• Monteverdi: Laetaniae della Beata Vergine a 6 voci
• Monteverdi: Lauda Jerusalem a 5, SV203
• Monteverdi: L'Orfeo
• Monteverdi: Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria
• Monteverdi: L'incoronazione di Poppea

On this album, we find a wonderful collection of often short sacred works by Monteverdi, all published in compilations made by others. Parts of psalms and hymns of all descriptions make up the texts – and always in the style that we know so well from, among others, the concertos in the Vespro della Beata Vergine; the pieces from the Selva Morale e Spirituale (a collection by Monteverdi himself, containing only his own music); and the posthumous collection from 1650, Messa a quattro voci ed salmi.

The repertoire on this album derives from multiple sources and was probably included in the various collections because the compiler simply liked it. Besides the polyphonic, madrigal-like pieces such as Adoramus te, Christe adoramus te and Domine in furore, the often highly virtuosic duets and solo pieces stand out. Sometimes, for example in Salve o regina, the embellishments are written out, which in turn teaches us a lot about how Monteverdi envisioned them.