Monteverdi - Heaven and Earth
£11.35
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Label: Vivat
Cat No: VIVAT104
Format: CD
Number of Discs: 1
Genre: Vocal/Choral
Release Date: 2nd September 2013
Contents
Works
L'OrfeoLamento della Ninfa
Madrigals, Book 5: SV94-106
Artists
Carolyn SampsonRebecca Outram
Julie Cooper
Sarah Connolly
Diana Moore
Charles Daniels
John Bowen
James Gilchrist
Robert Evans
Michael George
The King’s Consort
Conductor
Robert KingWorks
L'OrfeoLamento della Ninfa
Madrigals, Book 5: SV94-106
Artists
Carolyn SampsonRebecca Outram
Julie Cooper
Sarah Connolly
Diana Moore
Charles Daniels
John Bowen
James Gilchrist
Robert Evans
Michael George
The King’s Consort
Conductor
Robert KingAbout
An outstanding collection of vocal music by Claudio Monteverdi.
14 glorious tracks present an exquisitely varied programme on the theme of love in all its conflicting emotions, its joys and sweet pains affecting gods and mere mortals.
An all-star cast includes Carolyn Sampson, Sarah Connolly, Rebecca Outram, Charles Daniels and James Gilchrist joined by The King’s Consort’s highly colourful instrumental ensemble.
Included is the melancholy ‘Lamento della Ninfa’, the virtuosic ‘Zefiro torna’, exquisite love duets, Orfeo’s famous ‘Possente spirto’, a plangent lament from ‘Poppea’, and Monteverdi’s extraordinary ‘Hor che il ciel’.
Recorded in the unsurpassed acoustic of St Jude-on-the-Hill, London.
Contains a 48 page booklet with authoritative liner note by renowned Monteverdi scholar Prof John Whenham, plus full texts and translations.
Sound/Video
Paused
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1Toccata (from Orfeo)
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2Ritornello & Dal mio permesso (from Orfeo)
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3Zefiro torna (from Scherzi musicali, 1632)
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4Ohime, dov'e il mio ben (from Seventh Book of Madrigals)
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5Chiome, d'oro (from Seventh Book of Madrigals)
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6A Dio, Roma (from L'Incoronazione di Poppea)
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7A Dio, Florida bella (from Sixth Book of Madrigals)
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8Interrotte speranze (from Seventh Book of Madrigals)
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9Lamento d'Arianna (from Sixth Book of Madrigals)
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10Possente spirto (from Orfeo)
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11O come sei gentile (from Seventh Book of Madrigals)
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12Lamento della Ninfa (from Eighth Book of Madrigals)
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13Cruda Amarilli (from Fifth Book of Madrigals)
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14Hoe che 'l ciel, e la terra (from Eighth Book of Madrigals)
Europadisc Review
And what music it is! Taking as its theme the ‘sweet pains’ of love so prominent in madrigal texts set by Monteverdi, it includes some of his most vibrantly responsive music, in which the expression of the text and its emotions takes precedence over older notions of ‘correct’ counterpoint and harmony. The selection starts, appropriately enough, with the opening Toccata and Prologue (‘Dal mio permesso’) from Monteverdi’s epoch-making Orfeo sung with an engaging expressive range by soprano Carolyn Sampson, whose voice graces so many of the tracks on this disc. From the same opera comes Orpheus’s celebrated aria ‘Possente spirto’, executed with prodigious technical skill by tenor Charles Daniels. The other operatic item included here is Poppea’s lament ‘A Dio, Roma’ from L’Incoronazione di Poppea, a notably poignant account from mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly.
Two more laments further emphasise the intense pains of love in music of exquisite potency: Ariadne’s ‘Lasciatemi morire’ in the five-voice version from the Sixth Book of Madrigals, and the Lamento della Ninfe from the Eighth Book with its memorable four-note ground bass.
It’s not all doom and gloom, though: a lighter note is struck in ‘Chiome d’oro’ from the Seventh Book, a delightful soprano duet deftly sung by Carolyn Sampson and Rebecca Outram, and by the virtuosic ‘Zefiro torna’ for two tenors from the Scherzi musicali of 1632, with Daniels joined by James Gilchrist. The same two singers then join for one of Monteverdi’s most powerful duets, ‘Interrotte speranze’, again from the Seventh Book.
The disc concludes with Monteverdi’s six-voice setting of Petrarch’s Hor che ’l ciel, e la terra from the Eighth Book of Madrigals, with its astonishing close in which all the singers ascend or descend through their entire range.
Directed with customary flair and assurance by Robert King, and boasting an enviable line-up of musicians (including, for example, no lesser talents than Gary Cooper, Matthew Halls and Alastair Ross on the keyboard instruments), this is a most rewarding and impressive disc. It will appeal equally both to seasoned Monteverdi listeners and to those who want to ‘dip in’ to some of the most powerfully emotional music from the early seventeenth century or, for that matter, any era. Full texts are accompanied by English translations, and there’s a detailed and thoughtful essay provided by Monteverdi expert John Whenham in English, French and German. Altogether an outstanding release!
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