Claudio Monteverdi's
Seventh Book of Madrigals have been recorded well by several early music groups, but one expects superior readings from harpsichordist
Rinaldo Alessandrini and his vocal-instrumental ensemble
Concerto Italiano, and indeed, one gets them here.
Alessandrini's versions are on the spare side, with seven voices and an instrumental ensemble of 13 that includes three continuo instruments plus percussion, with
Alessandrini's harpsichord prominent in the mix, but he has all the equipment he needs to deliver a really distinctive "concerto," as the title of the
Seventh Book boldly proclaims itself. With this book,
Monteverdi moved decisively away from the old polyphonic madrigal ideal and toward the text-based settings that would be the norm for vocal music over the next four centuries and counting. Every facet of
Alessandrini's readings supports this feature, and the listener who plunges into the texts and gives these performances a close listen will be richly rewarded. He presents the madrigals not in the order in which they were published (which wasn't intended as a guide to performance anyhow), instead grouping the texted pieces by poet. This points to the stylistic features an audience of
Monteverdi's time would have been interested in, and
Alessandrini supports these features with readings that differentiate the pieces sharply from one another. The pastoral "Tirsi e Clori," with an anonymous text, is almost a little opera, with vivid readings by
Alessandrini's singers, while the smaller duets have madrigalistic intensity of a new kind.
Naive's engineering team delivers idiomatic sound from the Sala della Carita in Padua, a bonus on top of an ideal recording of music by the later
Monteverdi. ~ James Manheim
