Lamento d'Arianna various settings
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: Editio Classica
Magazine Review Date: 12/1990
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 108
Mastering:
ADD
Catalogue Number: GD77115
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| Lamento d'Arianna |
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 |
Composer or Director: Claudio Monteverdi, Claudio Pari, Francisco Antonio Costa, Severo Bonini, Francesco Maria Rascarini, Antonio Il Verso
Label: Editio Classica
Magazine Review Date: 12/1990
Media Format: Cassette
Media Runtime: 0
Mastering:
ADD
Catalogue Number: GK77115
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| Lamento d'Arianna |
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: Iain Fenlon
This has been something of an annus mirabilis for Monteverdians: two new recordings of his last great opera, L'incoronazione de Poppea (I shall be reviewing the new Rene Jacobs version next month) and, in this present batch of recent releases, a rich harvest of pieces from the last three madrigal books. The Sixth Book of 1614 is the last of Monteverdi's collections to be substantially made up of pieces written during his long and largely unhappy period of employment by the Gonzaga, Dukes of Mantua, a situation which the composer left in 1612/13 for better conditions in Venice where he had been appointed as Maestro di cappella at St Mark's Basilica. The book is arranged in two more or less equal halves, each of which is inaugurated and even dominated by a large-scale lament setting. The first of these, ''Lasciatemi morire'', is a polyphonic re-working of the central moment from Monteverdi's opera Arianna, a piece which evidently held a special place in the composer's affections and one to which he returned on a number of occasions in the course of his long career. The poignant and melancholic language which is such a feature of the lament suffuses the whole of the Sixth Book, and it is The Consort of Musicke's fine grasp of its essentials that make this record such a success. The Lament itself begins in a rather understated way, and for a brief moment it seems as if considerations of purity of sound and clarity of declamation and ensemble are to triumph over highly-charged emotion, but by the climax of the second section (''O Teseo, o Teseo mio''), it is clear that this is an extremely committed and effective account of some of the most powerful and moving music that the composer ever wrote. This is just one of a number of very fine interpretations on this record; among the others pride of place must be given to Zefiro torna, which traverses an extraordinary emotional and technical range in the course of its short length. Throughout these performances imaginative use has been made of the possibilities of varied continuo groupings, and improvised embellishment has been added in an exciting and convincing way.
This is not the case, however, with the complete recording of the Seventh Book by the Ensemble Concerto. Published in 1619, the Seventh Book is largely filled with the duets and trios with basso continuo accompaniment which were Monteverdi's response not only to the new song styles but also to the demands for small-scale social music which he had encountered in the lively and cosmopolitan city in which he now worked. The vocal style of the soloists of the Ensemble Concerto is certainly more full-blooded than that of The Consort of Musicke, more operatic in style with plenty of vibrato. That is not, in itself, a bad thing, but at times the singing is technically less assured than it should be, and the matter becomes crucial in passages where there is a good deal of added ornamentation. This is, in any case, sometimes done to excess, and the same rather fussy approach characterizes the continuo realizations which are similarly rather over-elaborate. The end result is a rather mannered rhetorical style which, while it produces some very stiking moments, often leads to rather fragmented readings in which the essential momentum of the music is lost. There are other problems too; the Cappella Mauriziana is far too large a group to perform ''A quest' olmo'' or even the ballet ''Tirsi e Clori'', and it is a mistake in such word-dependant music as this not to include translations of the texts. That said there are many enjoyable moments here in what is, after all, the first serious attempt to record the complete collection.
Monteverdi's final madrigal book, the Eighth, published in 1638, carries the subtitle Madrigali guerrieri et amorosi (''Warlike and amorous madrigals''). This unusual title is already an indication of unconventionality, and that sense is intensified by the contents proper which include, in addition to conventional madrigals (some on an unprecedentedly large scale, however), three short theatrical works, and it is these which make up The Consort of Musicke's new record. It is on the whole a beautifully-crafted sequence of performances characterized by the careful balance of voices, delicately-shaped phrases, and that distinctive sound (particularly in the upper voices) which is such a hallmark of The Consort's approach. That said, I find myself preferring other versions of two of the major pieces on the record. The success of the Combattimento largely depends on the narrator, and while Andrew King brings to the role a concentrated and tightly-focused sound, it is rather light in tone and to my mind is no match for Nigel Rogers with Goebel (Archiv) in terms of dramatic power and range. That alone might lead to a preference for the older recording, but the matter is decisively clinched by the rather selfconscious approach to the string writing which, while sometimes adopting speeds that verge on the eccentric, fails to achieve the violently dramatic effects that Monteverdi was clearly seeking. And, in the case of the Ballo delle ingrate, I have no hesitation in preferring the characteristically assertive reading of William Christie and Les Arts Florissants on Harmonia Mundi, full-blooded and histrionic, carrying the music across the footlights with conviction and flair. The overall sound produced by The Consort's instrumental grouping is every bit as sonorous and sensitively supportive as Christie's but the singing rarely achieves the same sense of drama.
The Consort's final contribution to this fine crop of recent Monteverdi recordings may seem to be somewhat academically conceived, being a sequence of works written under the influence of theLamento d'Arianna, a work which, as Severo Bonini reminds us, was known to every musical household in Italy. But as Bonini's own piece reveals, this is no mere academic exercise, and we need to be grateful to The Consort for widening our understanding of Italian seventeenth-century styles in a way that is enjoyable, imaginative and instructive at the same time. Yet fine though some of these virtually unknown pieces are (this is particularly true of Lorenzo Bianconi some years ago), it is to Monteverdi's original setting that we eventually return. So too do The Consort, or to be more precise Emma Kirkby who opens this two-record set with the 1608 operatic version and concludes it with the composer's own sacred contrafactum, the Pianto della Madonna of some 30 years later. These affecting and highly effective performances, both of which explore the full expressive range of their respective texts with all the technical skill and sensitivity to the style that we have come to expect, are the high points of a cleverly-conceived and highly enjoyable record.
'
This is not the case, however, with the complete recording of the Seventh Book by the Ensemble Concerto. Published in 1619, the Seventh Book is largely filled with the duets and trios with basso continuo accompaniment which were Monteverdi's response not only to the new song styles but also to the demands for small-scale social music which he had encountered in the lively and cosmopolitan city in which he now worked. The vocal style of the soloists of the Ensemble Concerto is certainly more full-blooded than that of The Consort of Musicke, more operatic in style with plenty of vibrato. That is not, in itself, a bad thing, but at times the singing is technically less assured than it should be, and the matter becomes crucial in passages where there is a good deal of added ornamentation. This is, in any case, sometimes done to excess, and the same rather fussy approach characterizes the continuo realizations which are similarly rather over-elaborate. The end result is a rather mannered rhetorical style which, while it produces some very stiking moments, often leads to rather fragmented readings in which the essential momentum of the music is lost. There are other problems too; the Cappella Mauriziana is far too large a group to perform ''A quest' olmo'' or even the ballet ''Tirsi e Clori'', and it is a mistake in such word-dependant music as this not to include translations of the texts. That said there are many enjoyable moments here in what is, after all, the first serious attempt to record the complete collection.
Monteverdi's final madrigal book, the Eighth, published in 1638, carries the subtitle Madrigali guerrieri et amorosi (''Warlike and amorous madrigals''). This unusual title is already an indication of unconventionality, and that sense is intensified by the contents proper which include, in addition to conventional madrigals (some on an unprecedentedly large scale, however), three short theatrical works, and it is these which make up The Consort of Musicke's new record. It is on the whole a beautifully-crafted sequence of performances characterized by the careful balance of voices, delicately-shaped phrases, and that distinctive sound (particularly in the upper voices) which is such a hallmark of The Consort's approach. That said, I find myself preferring other versions of two of the major pieces on the record. The success of the Combattimento largely depends on the narrator, and while Andrew King brings to the role a concentrated and tightly-focused sound, it is rather light in tone and to my mind is no match for Nigel Rogers with Goebel (Archiv) in terms of dramatic power and range. That alone might lead to a preference for the older recording, but the matter is decisively clinched by the rather selfconscious approach to the string writing which, while sometimes adopting speeds that verge on the eccentric, fails to achieve the violently dramatic effects that Monteverdi was clearly seeking. And, in the case of the Ballo delle ingrate, I have no hesitation in preferring the characteristically assertive reading of William Christie and Les Arts Florissants on Harmonia Mundi, full-blooded and histrionic, carrying the music across the footlights with conviction and flair. The overall sound produced by The Consort's instrumental grouping is every bit as sonorous and sensitively supportive as Christie's but the singing rarely achieves the same sense of drama.
The Consort's final contribution to this fine crop of recent Monteverdi recordings may seem to be somewhat academically conceived, being a sequence of works written under the influence of the
'
Lamento d'Arianna various settings
Lamento d'Arianna various settings
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