MONTEVERDI: Madrigals of Love and Loss – Arcangelo, Jonathan Cohen Hyperion

BALLO: VOLGENDO IL CIEL – MOVETE AL MIO BEL SUON
Volgendo il ciel – Movete al mio bel suon SV154[9’47]1
Introduzione al ballo: Volgendo il ciel per l’immortal sentiero[5’42]Thomas Walker (tenor)
2
Ballo a 5 con doi violini: Movete al mio bel suon le piante snelle[2’02]3
Ciaccona[3’04]Tarquinio Merula (1594/5-1665)
Volgendo il ciel – Movete al mio bel suon SV154[9’47]4
Ballo a 5, seconda parte: Ei l’armi cinse, e su destrier alato[2’03]5
Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda SV153[20’03]James Gilchrist (tenor)
6
Or che ‘l ciel e la terra e ‘l vento tace SV147[8’13]7
Ohimè, dov’è il mio ben, dov’è il mio core? SV140[5’14]Katherine Watson (soprano), Anna Dennis (soprano)
8
Zefiro torna e ‘l bel tempo rimena SV108[3’46]9
Ohimè il bel viso, ohimè il soave sguardo SV112[4’22]Sestina ‘Lagrime d’amante al sepolcro dell’amata’ SV111[15’32]10
Incenerite spoglie, avara tomba[2’25]11
Ditelo, o fiumi, e voi ch’udiste Glauco[1’49]12
Darà la notte il sol lume alla terra[2’19]13
Ma te raccoglie, o ninfa, in grembo ‘l cielo[2’55]14
O chiome d’or, neve gentil del seno[2’26]15
Dunque, amate reliquie, un mar di pianto[3’38]

Gramophone Award-winning ensemble Arcangelo (in their first recording as a vocal and instrumental group) 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.

Most of the madrigals of Book 6 (1614) are songs of parting and loss. Book 7 (1619) is entitled Concerto, meaning that all the works it contains require instrumental accompaniment. And Book 8 (1638) introduces the genere concitato—the ‘agitated’ manner 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 of the Combattimento is conveyed by a narrator (Testo—the text), sung here by celebrated tenor James Gilchrist.