Search - Claudio Monteverdi, La Venexiana :: Claudio Monteverdi: Ottavo Libra dei Madrigali - Madrigali Guerrieri et Amorosi

Great performances

John Weretka | Melbourne, Australia | 03/31/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"La Venexiana continues to lead the way in the performance of Monteverdi's music, showing that great riches come from prolonged exposure to the music of a single composer: they are living and breathing not just the music itself, but the idiom. They tackle here what is probably the most compelling but also the most difficult of Monteverdi's books of madrigals with consummate ease, assurance and elegance, giving compelling readings particularly of the large scale pieces, Il Combattimento and Il ballo delle ingrate. The latter in particular is a lavishly orchestrated feast. The recorded quality is up Glossa's normal standards.

This sets a real standard in the performance of Monteverdi's music and is by a long shot the best recording of the complete Eighth Book."

It's Been a Quiet Day on Mount Green...

Giordano Bruno | Wherever I am, I am. | 09/10/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"...my musical home town. Just the kind of day, not balmy enough to lure my out for a hike or a paddle, on which to listen to this 3-CD performance by La Venexiana head-to-head with my long-time favorite, that by The Consort of Musicke, conducted by Anthony Rooley. And that's how I spent my morning, with a few breaks for sit-ups and toe-taps, listening to selected madrigals from each set back-to-back, sometimes Venexiana first, sometimes Musicke.



Well, amici miei, they are different, both are great, and I can't declare an easy winner in the match-up. Some tracks go to Rooley, some to Claudio Cavina, the director of La Venexiana. By and large, the madrigals sung by tenors and basses belong to La Venexiana on the sheer beauty of those Italian voices, while the madrigals with sopranos singing the superius part of the polyphony, and the aria-madrigals for soprano over continuo, belong to the Consort of Musicke. Who, after all, can match Emma Kirkby? I've long suspected that Emma sold her aethereal soul to Beelzebub in exchange for her eerily unerring pitch. At least one of the beautiful soprano voices of La Venexiana makes a controlled practice of singing about 4 "cents" south of perfect, an effect cultivated for drama by lots of raven-tressed folksingers. It mars one madrigal - Il Lamento della Ninfa - just enough to make me yearn for Kirkby.



Tempi are generally about 10% slower in the Venexiana performance, chiefly to make room for fervent pauses and ritardandos, and the continuo is more robust, almost orchestral, with harp and bowed strings. Rooley prefers the transparent vivacity of his own lute for continuo. That's the key difference: Venexiana always goes for passion while The Consort seeks pastoral grace.



Is it possible to stretch too far toward mannerism and theatricality in these madrigals from the last decades of Monteverdi's career in Venice? La Venexiana seems to be exploring the edge of such excess, and sometimes leans precariously over the precipice of losing the music in the drama. On the other hand, the group succeeds in making several madrigals scorchingly affective which had previously seemed no more than pretty polyphony.



Do you need both sets? Of course you do! And the superb recording by Concerto Italiano also, which I'll get around to reviewing some other quiet day. Monteverdi's Ottavo Libro dei Magrigali is one of the pinnacles of human accomplishment in music."

Best current recording of the entire Libro ottavo dei madrig

Steven Guy | Croydon, South Australia | 02/19/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"My friend, Giordano Bruno, has said a lot of the things I was going to mention. This is a great set and only the old Consort of Musicke recording is as close to my heart. The old CoM recording was marked by its precision, clarity, beauty of sound and richness. Anthony Rooley and his Consort of Musicke performed the music at pitch, too, at a' = 440 Hz. La Venexiana is given to the occasional transpositions, usually downward, and this isn't necessary in modern performances, at least in my opinion. Of course, if we want to be pedantic, the music probably should be transposed up a semitone or a tone, to match the pitch of Italian music in the early 17th century. However, I am tolerant and I shall move on!



La Venexiana's performances are far more emotionally charged than those of The Consort of Musicke and the singers are native Italian speakers. The performances are poised, eloquent and, when necessary, muscular. I love La Venexiana's "Altri canti d'Amor", although I found the rubato in the introduction a little too gentle and "tentative", however, when the madrigal gets going, it powers along very nicely. The "Lamento della Ninfa", one of my all time favourites, is a real test of any performance of the Libro ottavo madrigals and La Venexiana didn't disappoint me. "Hor che'l ciel" is a brilliant study of sustained suppressed emotional violence. It is one of the most avant-garde madrigals ever composed and La Venexiana's performance is very impressive. However, will still happily return to the recording made by The Consort of Musicke from time to time.



Two madrigals that really sold me on this recording are "Dolcissimo uscignolo" and "Chi vol haver felice" which are virtually "brother & sister" pieces. The Consort of Musicke turns both into soprano solos and allocates the lower voices (SATB) to the bowed string instruments. La Venexiana presented them as fully sung pieces with bass continuo - we hear the soprano solos with a little vocal ensemble answering her, which is just as effective as the Consort of Musicke's approach.



I am pleased to have this recording. I bought the expensive recording of il Libro ottavo dei madrigali made by René Jacobs and his Concerto Vocale a few years ago - 2002, actually - and it just made me angry. I don't think René Jacobs really knew if he was recording Monteverdi or Verdi! And, in spite of some wonderful singers in his line up (Maria Cristina Kiehr, Christophe Laporte, etc.), monsieur Jacobs managed to turn the whole thing into a mess. Why Harmonia Mundi let him get away with it, is anyone's guess?



So, I have La Venexiana and The Consort of Musicke recordings of this important collection, surely one of the most important and powerful collections of music ever composed and published in human history? I tend to regard Monteverdi's nine books of madrigals on a same level of power and importance as Beethoven's nine symphonies, perhaps more so!





Post Script:

I have encountered several problems with this recording. The "Lamento della Ninfa" is performed with so much rubato the recording lacks expression and actually sounds rather perverse. The "Combattimento" contains an illogical and silly quote from "Possente spirto" from "L'Orfeo" and the delivery of the narrators lines is too free and the conciseness of Monteverdi's rhythms vis-à-vis the speech patterns is lost. In a word, the "Combattimento" is undramatic. Some of the other madrigali are performed too slowly and too tentatively.

La Venexiana was in much better form in the first six madrigal books of Monteverdi, things started to go wrong in the 7th book and the 8th book is the weakest of the entire set. I am sorry to have to report this, because I have been a huge fan of La Venexiana.



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