Monteverdi reviews

Monteverdi reviews

Monteverdi's Vespers 1610: a guide to the sacred masterpiece and its best recordings

Andrew Stewart pays an aural visit to late-Renaissance Italy, as he takes his pick of the best recordings of a spectacular sacred masterpiece, Vespers of 1610
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Soleil Noir (Emiliano Gonzalez Toro)

Emiliano Gonzalez Toro (tenor); I Gemelli (Naïve)
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Rebirth (Sonya Yoncheva)

Sonya Yoncheva (soprano); Cappella Mediterranea/Leonardo García Alarcón (Sony Classical)
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Il delirio della passione (Anna Lucia Richter)

Anna Lucia Richter (soprano), et al; Ensemble Claudiana (Pentatone)
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Monteverdi: L'Orfeo

Emiliano Gonzalez Toro (tenor), Emőke Baráth (soprano), et al; Ensemble Vocal de Poche; I Gemelli (Naïve)
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Monteverdi: Messa a quattro voci et Salmi of 1650, Vol. 2: plus works by Cavalli and Piccinini

The Sixteen/Harry Christophers (Coro)
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Songs of Orpheus: Songs by Monteverdi, Caccini, Castello, Cima, Landi, Brunelli and Merula

Karim Sulayman; Apollo’s Fire/Jeanette Sorrell (Avie)
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Orpheus: Songs, Arias and Madrigals by Johnson, Draghi, Greene, Byrd, Rasi, Monteverdi, Rossi et al

Julian Prégardien; Teatro del Mondo/Andreas Küppers (CPO)
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Monteverdi: Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria

Rolando Villazón et al; dir. Mariame Clément (Paris, 2017) Erato (DVD)
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Stravaganze d'Amore! – The Birth of Opera at the Medici Court

Lea Desandre, Eva Zacik, Lucile Richardot et al; Pygmalion Choir & Orchestra/Raphaël Pichon (Versailles DVD)
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Monteverdi: Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria

Furio Zanasi, Lucile Richardot, Krystian Adam, Hana Blažíková; Monteverdi Choir; English Baroque Soloists/John Eliot Gardiner (Soli Deo Gloria)
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Monteverdi: Vespro

La Tempête/Simon-Pierre Bestion, et al (Alpha Classics)
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Heras-Casado conducts Monteverdi

Recordings of Monteverdi’s monumental collection of sacred music, the Selva morale (1641), are not in short supply since we have very commendable (nearly complete) examples from – among others –

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Paul Agnew directs Monteverdi's L’Orfeo

British tenor Paul Agnew tackles an operatic triathlon here, as soloist (in the roles of Eco and Apollo), and as both musical and stage director of this new production of L’Orfeo filmed at the Théâtre de Caen. His mise en scène paints a series of pastoral tableaux with apt simplicity – a welcome change from the anachronisms directors often impose on early opera (though the singers’ actions would have benefitted from a little more direction).

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A bold new take on Monteverdi’s L'incoronazione di Poppea

‘Cognitive dissonance reigns as gorgeous music engulfs a drama about moral implosion’
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I Fagiolini perform Monteverdi: The Other Vespers

I Fagiolini isn’t the only group to have approached Monteverdi’s swansong collection of sacred music by way of an astutely assembled Vespers framework. Concerto Italiano’s 2014 delve into the 1641 Selva morale e spirituale fashioned a liturgy for the feast of St Mark. Robert Hollingworth, taking his cue from the ecstatic ear-witness report of a Dutch tourist in 1620 Venice, honours St John the Baptist with an adroitly chosen line-up.

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Monteverdi's Night, Stories of Lovers and Warriors conducted by Rinaldo Alessandrini

The theatre of night, a beguiling setting for Rinaldo Alessandrini and Concerto Italiano’s disc of much-loved madrigals to commemorate Monteverdi’s 450-year anniversary. Of course, these maestri of madrigals recorded much of this repertoire to great acclaim some twenty or more years ago, but the cover of darkness provides an elegant context for fresh interpretations – with striking new takes on ornamentation and dissonance, pace and affect.

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Monteverdi's L'Orfeo conducted by Claudio Cavina

Originally recorded for the opera’s 400th anniversary, this performance is erudite, subtle and moving.  Pungent sonorities set voices in sharp relief. Unlike with many reissues, the liner notes include the libretto.

Berta Joncus

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Monteverdi's Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda conducted by Malgoire

The raw excitement of this performance, made when Monteverdi was still a novelty, compensates for its flaws. Malgoire rightly makes his singers almost speak, and the band plays with abandon.

Berta Joncus

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Monteverdi's Madrigals Vol. 3 - Les Arts Florissants

Monteverdi very tidily split his musical career into three style periods, each one related to a change of place – Cremona, Mantua and Venice. In this final volume of their series Les Arts Florissants cover his years in Venice (1613-43) with extracts from his late madrigal books.

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Monteverdi: The Seven Deadly Sins - performed byCappella Mediterranea

Heralding the 450th birthday celebrations of Claudio Monteverdi in 2017, Leonardo Garcia Alarcon and Cappella Mediterranea’s dramatic recital disc explores the emotional gamut of Monteverdi’s imagination. An unashamedly clever programme, the seven deadly sins are countered by seven virtues, each ascribed madrigals (Books III, IV and VIII) or opera scenes (L’Orfeo, Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria, L’incoronazione di Poppea). With tracks flowing one to another almost seamlessly, the pacing of the disc is excellent.

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Monteverdi's Madrigali Guerrieri et Amorosi performed by Concerto Vocale and conducted by René Jacobs

Concerto Italiano might enjoy a native idiomatic edge but no one could accuse Jacobs of short-changing Monteverdi’s dramatic genius. Cockily red in tooth and claw, judiciously plaintive; a must-have set.
Paul Riley
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Monteverdi

This compelling and insightful album is an outstanding contribution to Monteverdi’s 450th anniversary. John Butt makes no attempt to place the ‘work’ in the framework of a single church service, as the evidence now seems clear that the individual items of the published collection were composed over a number of years for varied liturgical contexts.

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Night, Stories of Lovers and Warriors: selections from Monteverdi's Madrigals Books 6 and 8

'Concerto Italiano perform with their trademark ravishing blend' - Read more...

 

Monteverdi

Selections from Madrigals Books 6 and 8; Sinfonias

Concerto Italiano/Rinaldo Alessandrini

Naïve OP30566

 

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