Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643)
Qual si può dir
Canzonette d'amore
La fiera vista
Raggi dov'è il mio ben
Vita de l'alma mia
Il mio martir
Son questi i crespi crini
Io mi vivea
Su su su
Quando sperai
Come farò cuor mio
Corse alla morte
Tu ridi sempre mai
Chi vuol veder d'inverno
Già mi credea
Godi pur del bel sen
Giù li a quel petto
Si come crescon
Io son Fenice
Chi vuol vedere un bosco
Hor care canzonette

Giovanni Brugnami, flûte à bec
Mauro Agostinelli, flûte à bec
Emiliano Finucci, viola da braccio
Jasmina Capitano, viole de gambe
Fabiano Merlante, théorbe, guitare baroque
Sauro Argalia, clavecin
Ensemble Armoniosoincanto

Caterina Becchetti, soprano
Elisabetta Becchetti, contre-alto
Francesca Piottoli, soprano
Paola Incani, mezo-soprano
Adreina Zatti, contre-alto

Franco Radicchia, direction

The madrigals of Monteverdi are famously complex marriages of text and music in which no effort is spared to illustrate the expression of love lost and found within the given form of densely textured vocal chamber music. The canzonettas are rather simpler, both to sing and to appreciate, though not without many of their own pleasures. They have been overlooked on record in favour of complete madrigal collections, but this new recording should help to reassess their value. Monteverdi’s collection begins with a text in homage to ‘il signor Pietro Ambrosini’, to whom the publication was dedicated. It concludes with a formal expression of farewell and thanks to his listeners. In between are another 19 songs, derived from a form first devised by Orazio Vecchi, perhaps with amateur musicians and domestic settings in mind given their less elaborate qualities. Monteverdi is prepared to be musically more radical than Vecchi, however, and while largely respecting the homophonic declamation of text which is prescribed by the genre, there are passages of exuberant ornamentation and sighing echoes according to the nature of the poetic expression, whether laughing or crying from love. Armoniosoincanto is an ensemble of largely female voices which has been performing and recording for almost 20 years; this is their third recording for Brilliant Classics, after beautifully contoured discs of Couperin (the Masses for the Parishes and Convents, BC94333) and the rather less familiar Laudario di Cortona (BC94872), a chant-book from the Middle Ages. They are based in the regions of Umbria and Tuscany, in the heart of Italy, and made this recording in the Umbrian town of Assisi. For this recording they were joined by a mixed period-instrument ensemble of flutes, violas, theorbo and harpsichord.