Le Nuove Musiche, Krijn Koetsveld - Monteverdi: Madrigali, Libro IX (2017)

With this recording the acclaimed ensemble Le Nuove Musiche, led by director Krijn Koetsveld, have at last completed a monumental undertaking nearly a decade in the making: the complete cycle of Claudio Monteverdi’s books of madrigals. Fittingly, the last instalment in this series is the final Ninth Book (Libro IX), which was published posthumously in 1651 and looks back on the breadth of the composer’s career with lighter pieces in the established forms of his day (prima prattica), in Monteverdi’s own innovative style (seconda prattica), and in a new genre that had begun to eclipse the madrigal in Monteverdi’s twilight years. Though not published in his lifetime, the preface suggests that the Ninth Book was indeed compiled by Monteverdi himself, as a mix of madrigals – still contrapuntal, though simple in texture with at most three parts – and examples of this newly popular canzonetta, with its single accompanied melody. In that sense, the Ninth Book captures the transition from polyphony to monody – from the Renaissance to the early Baroque – in miniature.

TRACKLIST

01 Bel pastor, SV 168
02 Zefiro torna, SV 108
03 Se vittorie sí belle, SV 149
04 Armato il cor, SV 150
05 Ardo e scoprir, SV 152
06 O sia tranquill'il mare, SV 172
07 Alcun non mi consigli, SV 169
08 Di far sempre gioire, SV 170
09 Quando dentro al tuo seno, SV 171
10 Non voglio amare, SV 172
11 Come dolce hoggi l'auretta, SV 173
12 Gl'amoretti l'aura fanno, SV 173b
13 Ride il bosco, SV 173c
14 Entri pur nel nostro petto, SV 173d
15 Alle danze, SV 174
16 Perchè se m'odiavi, SV 175
17 Sì, sì, ch'io v'amo, SV 176
18 Su, su, su, pastorelli vezzosi, SV 177
19 O mio bene, SV 178