2004
Monteverdi: Concerto Settimo Libro dei Madrigali
About This Album
Claudio Monteverdi's Seventh Book of Madrigals, written in 1619, was really the first that was fully part of the new operatic age -- and really the first to consist of pieces that were not really madrigals at all. For all of the soloistic and operatic expressive devices, for all the block chords that had appeared in the previous few books, this was the first set in which Monteverdi dispensed with the traditional five-voice texture of the madrigal. He proclaimed this move with a unique title for the book, a relatively new word that would go on to a long and distinguished career -- he called it "Concerto." The root of the word in Latin meant to contend or to fight, and the interest of this Monteverdi set lies in how voices, styles, and ideas contend for dominance, even as a shell of allusions to the traditional idea of a madrigal is maintained. A few pieces are polyphonic works that heighten expression with pungent dissonances -- old-style madrigals, with continuo accompaniment. Others might as well be taken from works in the young genre of opera. Some are for two gloriously intertwined voices, with Monteverdi making the most of his chance to have voices collide, dispute, and sensuously settle together.
Track List

Disc 1

Madrigals, Book 7, For 1,2,3,4 & 6 Voices, SV 117-145
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.

Disc 2

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.