The Madrigal Reimagined: Claudio Merulo, Johann Nauwach, Claudio Monteverdi, Cipriano de Rore, Cristofano Malvezzi, Giulio Caccini, Emilio de’Cavalieri, Giovanni Gabrieli, Giovanni Perluigi da Palestrina, Lorenzo Tracetti; Hannah Ely, Toby Carr, Monteverdi String Band, Oliver Webber; Resonus Classics
Reviewed 2 August 2024
A splendidly satisfying recital that mixes didacticism with sheer vocal and instrumental dazzle as Oliver Webber and his ensemble discover how the madrigal went from easy tune to one thing extra elaborate and extra advanced
As Oliver Webber explains within the booklet notes for The Madrigal Reimagined on Resonus Classics, “At a gathering of the Florentine Academy in 1577, the poet Giovanni Battista Strozzi gave a lecture on a poetic type that was quickly gaining in recognition: the madrigal. A brief poem of no fastened rhyme and construction, it was, Strozzi defined, ideally suited to the depiction of mild scenes of affection reasonably than heroic deeds or tragedy; certainly, reasonably than profundity, its essence lay in an elusive allure, which Strozzi encapsulated with the phrase un non so che del frizzante, ‘slightly one thing glowing’ – or, based on some dictionaries of the interval, ‘stinging’.”
From this intriguing however not precisely earth-shattering starting grew a big musical construction as composers reinvented and reimagined settings of those verses. The madrigal is on the coronary heart of seconda prattica and would lead, in a single path, to the primary operas, however there are different instructions too.
On this disc, Webber and the Monteverdi String Band are joined by Hannah Ely (soprano) and Toby Carr (Renaissance lute and theorbo) for a programme that takes us from the earliest madrigals via vivid instrumental reinventions and ending up with music from Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo. Monteverdi’s seconda prattica broke guidelines for expressive functions. The disc explores the totally different parts that totally different composers dropped at their exploration of the madrigal.
After an instrumental introduction from Claudio Merulo, now we have some evaluate and distinction, the madrigal Cruda amarilli in a sung model by Johann Nauwach (a pupil of Schutz) and an instrumental model by Monteverdi, adopted by variations and preparations of Cipriano de Rore’s Anchor che col partire, exhibiting how ornamentation might embellish and on the similar time make extra expressive. That is cue for a beautiful solo from Webber with a stunning, but expressive account of Orazio Bassani’s diminutions on Cipriano de Rore’s Vergine Bella and afterward within the disc Webber returns to de Rore’s madrigals together with his personal diminutions on two extra, fantastic stuff that helps us recapture the expressive dazzle that’s typically lacking from up to date performances of music that was not utterly written down.
One other necessary factor was dance, and we hear a bunch of items from Monteverdi’s Il Ballo dell’Ingrate, an prolonged madrigal that has dance at its core however which additionally factors us ahead to the event of opera.
Then we transfer in direction of opera from a special path as we hear three musical excerpts from the 1589 Florentine Intermedi, lavish staged entertainments that mixed essentially the most advance music with subtle designs and staging. Not opera, however getting shut and with the madrigal at their coronary heart. We coronary heart the sober dignity of Cristonfani Malvezzi’s Sinfonia from the fourth intermedio, La Regione dei Demone, then the depth of Giulio Caccini’s Io che dal ciel additionally from the fourth intermedio, with its good ornamentation initially sung by Caccini’s spouse (right here dazzlingly completed by Hannah Ely). The music and its dazzle distracting momentarily from the spectacular staging. Lastly, on this group, Emilio de’ Cavaliere’s O che nuovo miraculo from the sixth intermedio, the place dance is to the fore.
Examples of reinventions of Palestrina and Cipriano de Rore reveal that ornamentation and divisions was not essentially a solo speciality.
We then end with a sequence from Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo the place the vividness of the taking part in and the sheer stylistic brilliance greater than makes up for the restrictions in instrumental color. With simply Hannah Ely, the string ensemble plus Toby Carr, we are able to hear fairly clearly how Monteverdi is utilizing the weather of decoration, dance, rhythm and concord to create an expressive palate that goes manner past the straightforward concept of a madrigal as an leisure.
As ever with Oliver Webber and the Monteverdi String Band’s discs, you possibly can take heed to this plenty of methods. There’s a clear didactic factor, introducing and exploring the complexities of what occurred to the madrigal in the course of the first two generations of composers exploring its prospects. However the recital is splendidly satisfying merely as a recital, with every part carried out in vivid model.
The Madrigal Reimagined
Hannah Ely (soprano)
Toby Carr (Renaissance lute, theorbo)
Monteverdi String Band
Oliver Webber (violin & director)
Recorded in St Michael’s Church, Highgate on 21–23 November 2023
RESONUS CLASSICS RES10341 1CD [63.41]
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