The trouble is that our ears have been completely spoilt, at least as far as the madrigal repertory is concerned. Particularly as regards the more harmonically adventurous madrigals of the late sixteenth century and the first part of the seventeenth, precision of tuning is a crucial factor, for, however expressively sung, if in the preparation and resolving of dissonance the pitch wavers even fractionally the wrong sort of tensions are created and the right sort of effect is marred. The Consort of Musicke's approach to this repertory is by no means the only one, but in matters of intonation—made all the more pertinent by their pure, almost vibrato-less sound—they are unfailingly accurate. Not so, sadly, with Quink, a group of young singers from Holland. They have many good things to offer, but complete stability of tuning is not one of them. This is probably more offensive on record than it would be in the concert hall, where the odd shaky entry is soon forgotten and the occasional pitch slither soon passed over, but the repeated-hearing psychology of the disc is another matter.
The madrigals of de Wert, Stradella and Monteverdi are, of course, especially demanding, but when the intonation is not completely focused, the sighs of the tormented lover can begin to torment the listener. Possibly I am overstating the case, but pungent harmony is so much at the root of the musical idiom here that even the most expressive singing will not hide the slightest blemish with complete success. And Quink can sing most expressively. The sensuous rise and fall of Monteverdi's Si ch'io vorrei morire is well paced and graded in dynamic, but the outbursts on ''Ahi'' are just too ambiguous pitchwise for comfort. What marvellous music, however, and there is not a single dull piece in this collection, sub-titled ''Songs of love and death'', 'death' having the sexual connotations customary in renaissance verse. Stradella's Piangete, occhi dolenti, though dwelling on the less obviously sensual imagery of the eyes, is equally emotionally pungent and is sung with great conviction. The words are produced a little far back in comparison to the Consort of Musicke and there are a few rather unitalianate vowels; bringing things forward might help the pitching and make the bass voice sound a little less covered. But such comparisons are perhaps invidious and Quink do have their own blend—with a light, slightly breathy at times, but clear soprano sound (at its best in de Wert's Vezzosi augelli) and strong inner voices—and have successfully developed a personal style. Not easy with the magnetic pull of such a forceful model.'