Gesualdi da Venosa (1566-1613)
Extraits du "Quinto libro de madrigali a 5 voci"

Luca Marenzio (1553-1643)
Extraits du "Quinto libro a 5"

Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583-1643)
Canzon seconda a 4 sopra Romanesca, extrait de "Canzoni di sonare, Libro I"

Gioseffo Guami (1540-1611)
Extraits de "Canzoni di sonare"

Giovanni Gabrieli (1557-1612)
Da quei begl'occhi", extrait de "Terzo Libro a 5"

Giaches de Wert (1535-1596)
Extraits de "Undecimo libro a 5"
Extraits du "Nono libro di madrigali a 5 e a 6"

Tarquinio Merula (1595-1665)
Canzon "La Merula", extrait du "Primo Libro delle Canzoni a 4 voci"

Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643)
Extraits du "Secondo Libro de mardigalia 5 voci"
O tenebroso giorno, extrait de "Quinto libro di madrigali"

Giovanni Maria Trabaci (1575-1647)
Canzone Francesca Settima cromatica, extrait de "Ricercate, canzone francese"

Roberta Invernizzi, soprano
Accademia Strumentale Italiana
Alberto Rasi, viole de gambe, direction

« O très amères douceurs de l’amour… » Cet oxymore emprunté à un madrigal de Giaches de Wert résume la tonalité néo-pétrarquiste des madrigaux rassemblés dans ce bel album. Cette anthologie rassemble la fine fleur des madrigalistes de la fin du XVIe et du début du XVIIe siècles, avec en prime un presque inconnu, Gioseffo Guami. Les esprits chagrins pourraient critiquer la réduction à une voix soliste de ces petits bijoux polyphoniques, écrits le plus souvent pour cinq voix. Mais quelle voix ! Ne boudons pas le plaisir que nous offre la grande soprano Roberta Invernizzi. De sa voix chaude et sensuelle, elle cisèle chaque mot, chaque idée musicale, à tel point que l’on croirait ces bijoux écrits pour elle. De ces miniatures, elle fait des drames passionnés. A écouter pour le plaisir des oreilles et de l’intellect. (Marc Galand)

In the mid-16th century, counterpoint – now no longer the abstract and self-referential art of good voice leading – entered the orbit of musica poetica, the form of music in which the communicative element was emphasized: by the very imitation of the concept contained in the words, music now gained the power to lend a sensually perceivable soul to the resounding numbers, the rational component of the composition. Of course such poetically conceived music had to be vocal music; and the madrigal became the genre in which the perfect balance between ratio and sensus, between rationality and sensuality, could be struck. Written and visual sources testify that the practice of combining vocal lines and instruments was common when performing polyphonic works. Long before the rise of accompanied monody, the practice of ‘concerted’ madrigals had translated the theoretic concept of musica poetica into practical performance formulas which did justice to the intelligibility of words and texts. The combination of a solo vocal line and accompaniment by a consort of viols seems ideal in order to render the text completely and intelligibly, while keeping the sound structure of polyphony intact at the same time.