FULL Monteverdi: Complete Madrigals Books I – V, VII Paris 2011-2012 Les Arts Florissants, Paul Agnew

• Work Title: Complete Madrigals Books I - V, VII  
• Composer: Monteverdi Claudio  
• Libretto: various  
• Venue & Opera Company: Amphitheatre de la Cité de la musique, Paris, France  
• Recorded: 2011, 2012
• Type: Concert Live
• Singers: Miriam Allan, Hannah Morrison, Marie Gautrot, Paul Agnew, Sean Clayton, Lisandro Abadie
• Conductor: Paul Agnew  
• Orchestra:
• Stage Director:   
• Costume Designer:   

Information about the Recording

• Published by: ALTEA MEDIA  
• Date Published: 2023  
• Format: Streaming
• Quality Video: 4 Audio:4
• Subtitles: nosubs  
• Video Recording from: YouTube     FULL VIDEO
•  

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE

Book I, a Book written in a pastoral style. Written in 1587, Book I of Monteverdi’s madrigals is dedicated to Count Marco Verità, poet and patron of Verona. Monteverdi is 19 and may be looking to get hired. The collection is written in a pastoral and sometimes dissonant style. One of the pieces, “La vaga pastorella”, opens with a series of leaps describing the shepherdess in a field.
1. Ch’ami la vita mia nel tùo bel nome
2. Se per havervi oime donato il core
3. A che tormi il ben moi
4. Amor per tua mercè vattene à quella
5. Baci soavi, e curry
6. Se pur non mi consented
7. Filli cara & amata
8. Poi che del mio dolore
9. Fumia la Pastorella
10. Almo divino raggio
11. All’hora i pastor tutti
12. Se nel depart da voi vita mia sento
13. Tra mille fiamme et tra mille catene
14. Usciam Ninfe homai fuor di questi boschi
15. Questa ordì il laccio
16. The Vaga Pastorella
17. Amor s’il tuo ferire
18. Donna s’io miro voi giaccio divengo
19. Ardo si ma non t’amo
20. Ardi ò gela in tua voglia
21. Arsi & alsi in mia voglia

Of the twenty madrigals that make up Monteverdi’s Second Book (published in 1590), nine are settings of poems by Torquato Tasso, who was then, already in his lifetime, recognized as Italy’s greatest epic poet. But the Tasso sank little by little into madness. He was interned in 1577 after an attack of paranoia, then again in 1579 for a period of seven years, in the Sant’Anna hospital in Ferrara. Yet it is pastoral atmospheres that the poet suggests to the composer in several of the madrigals collected here. No. 10, “S’andasse amor a caccia”, is a scene of amorous hunting where the voices enter in canon and continue. And above all, number 12, the famous “Ecco mormorar l’onde”, is a small madrigalese jewel, rustling with the murmur of water and the songs of birds.

1. Non si levava ancor l’alba novella
2. E dicea l’una sospirando allora
3. Bevea fillide mia
4. Dolcissimi legami
5. Non giacinti o narcisi
6. Intorno a due vermiglie e vaghe labra
7. Non sono in queste rive
8. Tutte le bocche belle
9. Donna, nel mio ritorno
10. Quell’ombra esser vorrel
11. S’andasse amor a caccia
12. Mentr’io mirava fiso
13. Se tu mi lassi, perfida, tuo danno!
14. Ecco mormorar the wave
15. La bocca onde l’asprissime parole
16. Dolcemente dormiva la mia clori
17. Crudel, perché mi fuggi?
18. Questo specchio ti dono
19. Non mè grave il morire
20. Ti sponto l’ali, amor, la donna mia
21. Cantai un tempo, e, se fu dolce il canto

Book III appeared in 1590, two years after Monteverdi’s arrival in Mantua, city of art. The atmosphere that reigns there will be a great source of inspiration for the young composer.
1. The giovinetta pianta
2. O come è gran martire
3. Sovra tenere herbette e bianchi fiori
4. O dolc’anima mia, dunque e pur vero
5. Stracciami pure he core
6. O rossignuol ch’in queste verdi slingshot
7. Se per estre’ardore
8. Vattene pure crudel (prima parte)
9. La tra’l sangue e le mort’egro giacente (seconda parte)
10. Poi ch’ella in sé tornò, desert e muto (terza parte)
11. O primavera gioventù de l’anno
12. Perfidissimo volto
13. Ch’io non t’ami, cor mio?
14. Occhi, a mia vita tempo
15. Vivro fra i miei tormenti e le mie cure (prima parte)
16. My dove, ò lasso me! (second part)
17. Io pur verrò la dove sete (terza parte)
18. Lumi, miei cari lumi
19. Rimanti in pace (prima parte)
20. Ond’ei, di morte la sua faccia impressa (seconda parte)

Book IV
Monteverdi has just been named “maestro della musica” of the court of Mantua. He published Book IV in 1603, but several of the madrigals it contains date from the late 1590s. Monteverdi extends and exacerbates the new expressive powers he discovered in Book III. For example, a madrigal depicts the pain of two lovers on the verge of parting. Two sopranos enter in unison only to then disunite in a painful dissonance, certainly shocking, but at the same time delicious and moving. Book IV continues to reinvent the art of declamation Monteverdi takes a further step forward by illustrating a series of words with a single note, thus giving singers the freedom to declaim the text very naturally. In 1600, the Bolognese theoretician Giovanni Artusi wrote a pamphlet against Monteverdi. He deplores the modernism of Monteverdi’s writing. This indeed gives increasing importance to the text and to the emotion, which is contrary to the academic conventions of the time. He also criticizes the dissonant aspect of Monteverdi’s music. Book IV ends with a madrigal evoking disappointed loves that border on madness. The chromatic harmonic language here is unusual and complex.