Lamento d'Arianna
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Claudio Monteverdi, Claudio Pari, Francisco Antonio Costa, Severo Bonini, Francesco Maria Rascarini, Antonio Il Verso
Label: Deutsche Harmonia Mundi
Magazine Review Date: 2/1985
Media Format: Vinyl
Media Runtime: 0
Mastering:
ADD
Catalogue Number: 1C 165 169504-3
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| Madrigals, Book 6 (Il sesto libro de madrigali), Movement: Lamento d'Arianna: Lasciatemi morire (wds. Rinucci |
Claudio Monteverdi, Composer
Anthony Rooley, Conductor Claudio Monteverdi, Composer Consort of Musicke Emma Kirkby, Soprano |
| (L')Arianna |
Claudio Monteverdi, Composer
Claudio Monteverdi, Composer |
| Selva morale e spirituale, Movement: Iam moriar, 'Pianto della Madonna sopra Lamento d'1v) |
Claudio Monteverdi, Composer
Anthony Rooley, Conductor Claudio Monteverdi, Composer Consort of Musicke Emma Kirkby, Soprano |
| Lamento d'Arianna in stile recitativo |
Severo Bonini, Composer
Anthony Rooley, Conductor Consort of Musicke Severo Bonini, Composer |
| (Il) Lamento d'Arianna |
Claudio Pari, Composer
Anthony Rooley, Conductor Claudio Pari, Composer Consort of Musicke |
| Pianto d'Arianna |
Francisco Antonio Costa, Composer
Anthony Rooley, Conductor Consort of Musicke Emma Kirkby, Soprano Francisco Antonio Costa, Composer |
| Lasciatemi morire |
Antonio Il Verso, Composer
Anthony Rooley, Conductor Antonio Il Verso, Composer Consort of Musicke |
| Reciproco amore (Lasciatemi morire) |
Francesco Maria Rascarini, Composer
Anthony Rooley, Conductor Consort of Musicke Francesco Maria Rascarini, Composer |
Author:
This is a highly imaginative and most fascinating issue. Hearing the lament from Monteverdi's otherwise lost opera L'Arianna today, whether in its original solo vocal form or in the composer's own five-part madrigal arrangement, it is not difficult to understand why it should have been celebrated so ubiquitously during the first half of the seventeenth century. The Lamento remains one of Monteverdi's best loved and most frequently performed works, and recordings are legion; but who will have heard before the curious assortment of related laments that appeared in its wake? This set includes five such pieces, together with Monteverdi's original settings and an adaptation to Latin sacred words of the monodic version.
The performances of theLamento d'Arianna itself demand immediate commendation. Emma Kirkby, accompanied by Anthony Rooley, sings the solo setting with a blend of pathos and drama that seems to me just right for the work, and on a chamber scale that ensures a winning sense of intimacy. My only reservation concerns the quality of the recorded sound, which here has a metallic ring and is altogether less attractive than that of the recent Hyperion issue in which the same performers give us the complementary Lamento d'Olimpia (A66106, 12/84). Matters improve, however, for the ensuing consort arrangement of the lament, which is sung here by five solo voices without continuo accompaniment. Again, the reading is excellent, not only in terms of the interpretation but also on account of the excellent tuning and blend of the singers. As for the sacred adaptation, a rather cloying Pianto della Madonna in which Ariadne's address to Theseus is changed into Mary's lament before the cross—well, you may take it or leave it; Emma Kirkby sings here with discreet organ accompaniment, and succeeds in avoiding the over-pious and grotesque.
Turning to the remaining works in this set, do not be put off if I start by saying that none of them reaches the level of achievement and craftsmanship of Monteverdi's settings. The extended scena by Severo Bonini, almost a miniature opera in itself, does maintain a degree of dramatic continuity, and its concluding lamento, intact with chorus interjections of the kind that Monteverdi apparently included inL'Arianna, evinces a certain strength of personality. David Thomas makes an effective if slightly overblown teseo, and Emma Kirkby once again responds magnificently in the role of Arianna, which in this case calls for a shift in mood from initial submissiveness to final desolate indignation. claudio Pari's cycle of 12 arianna madrigals lacks this overtly dramatic dimension, remaining a lament for its full duration of almost half an hour. This was an ambitious idea, and I am not convinced that the composer was quite talented enough to sustain the tension. Nevertheless, the consort of five voices, again unaccompanied, gives its most careful consideration. The remaining three works are shorter: Costa's Pianto d'Arianna is a routine and rather undistinguished monody, Il Verso's Lasciatemi morire a smudge of dissonant polyphony redolent of Gesualdo at his less outlandish extreme, while Rascarini's Reciproco Amore leads us into the more orderly late seventeenth-century world of three-part arioso in which the aim is to charm rather than win the sympathy of the listener.
For the Monteverdi settings alone, these records are well worth buying. No music by the other composers is currently available on record and indeed it is something of an occasion to have such out of the way pieces presented in such good performances. Whether or not one ultimately admires the works by Bonini and Pari, they are undeniably fascinating curiosities. Congratulations to those who devised the programme and to the performers for realizing it.'
The performances of the
Turning to the remaining works in this set, do not be put off if I start by saying that none of them reaches the level of achievement and craftsmanship of Monteverdi's settings. The extended scena by Severo Bonini, almost a miniature opera in itself, does maintain a degree of dramatic continuity, and its concluding lamento, intact with chorus interjections of the kind that Monteverdi apparently included in
For the Monteverdi settings alone, these records are well worth buying. No music by the other composers is currently available on record and indeed it is something of an occasion to have such out of the way pieces presented in such good performances. Whether or not one ultimately admires the works by Bonini and Pari, they are undeniably fascinating curiosities. Congratulations to those who devised the programme and to the performers for realizing it.'
Lamento d'Arianna
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