Claudio Monteverdi - Il Terzo Libro di Madrigali - Claudio Cavina & La Venexiana
Claudio Monteverdi - Il Terzo Libro di Madrigali - Claudio Cavina & La Venexiana
Classical, Vocal | APE (Single Tracks) dBPoweramp | 1CD/236MB | RS.com
Unbeatable approach to Monteverdi’s voyage through uncharted waters
The masterly anthology of styles that is Monteverdi’s Third Book presents very specific challenges in performance precisely because of its variety. La Venexiana have an excellent understanding of the essentially polyphonic nature of such works as La giovinetta pianta and are therefore quite superb in the more difficult mixed style of O dolce anima mia, Stracciami pur il core or Se per estremo ardore, whose complicated rhetorical devices are brought off with perfection. Such brief transcendent moments as ‘non può morir d’amor alma fedele’ in Stracciami pur il core, or ‘ingiustamente brami’ in O dolce anima mia, far from seeming isolated jewels, arise here naturally from their context, which is no mean achievement for the uncharted waters that Monteverdi was navigating in these experimental but masterly works. The singers also have the full measure of the Tasso cycles of the Third Book, entering fully into the polychrome, storm-lit intensity of the emotional and musical landscape. The Consort of Musicke’s recording is a viable alternative, but it comes down to which sound you prefer; I find La Venexiana’s darker hues and dramatic but not histrionic approach to be unbeatable. Glossa provides full texts and notes (of which, in the interests of complete transparency, I was one of the translators) and three rather trendy quotations, from Eliot, Miles Davies and Claudio Abbado, serving as a ‘commentary on the recording’. I find Monteverdi’s choice of texts to be enough, but this is most certainly a minor objection to a very fine disc.
Ivan Moody, Gramophone Magazine 11/2002
Album Information
Composer: Claudio Monteverdi
Performer: Claudio Cavina, La Venexiana
Audio CD (July 16, 2002)
Number of Discs: 1
Label: Glossa GCD920910
Amazon ASIN: B00006B1R7
Tracklist
01 - La giovanetta pianta
02 - O come e gran martire
03 - Sovra tenera erbette
04 - O dolve anima mia
05 - Stracciami pur il core
06 - O rossignol
07 - Se per estremo ardore
08 - Vattene pur crudel
09 - O primavera
10 - Perfidissmo volto
11 - Ch'io non t'ami cor mio
12 - Occhi un tempo mia vita
13 - Vivro fra i miei tormenti
14 - Lumi miei cari
15 - Rimanti in pace
Claudio Monteverdi - Il Terzo Libro di Madrigali - Claudio Cavina & La Venexiana
