Rinaldo Alessandrini is one of today's most eminent Monteverdi authorities, and his highly acclaimed recordings with Concerto Italiano are now widely recognized as a reference point fo rmusic lovers all over the world. Recent achievements include the completion of Monteverdi's triology of operas at La Scala in Milan and at the Opera 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, Claudio Cattaneo, and his favorite singer, Caterina Martinelli. Its density of expression, its "italianita", not exempt from theatricality, by turns luminous and despairing, make it the place where interpretation is the fundamental element, capable of overwhelming our contemporaries.