Search - Claudio Monteverdi, Les Arts Florissants :: Monteverdi: Selva morale e spirituale

Viva Monteverdi! Viva!

Giordano Bruno | Wherever I am, I am. | 11/19/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"First a caution: this is not the complete Selva Morale e Spirituale collection of 1640; it is a splendid selection. Also, this is not a new recording; it's a re-release of a 1992 CD, so make sure you don't double your disks as I stupidly did. The amazon list of performers is maliciously confusing. But hey, if there's ever a CD I'd want two copies of, this might be it. I've played the first copy more often perhaps than any other disk I own. It's rich, vibrant, exuberant music that always erases most of my attention from anything else. If the gloomy strains of late Shostakovich or the giddy ditties of young Mozart are pestering your consciousness, just play Monteverdi's Beatus Vir. It's the universal tune solvent.

Monteverdi's operas have become familiar enough that many people expect most of his music to consist of elegant, slightly elegaic recitativo. Selva Morale is the polar opposite, music in a dance-like ritornello style, with lots of violin fireworks illuminating the "cantabile" voices in duets and trios. I can think of no other music simultaneously so joyful and so spiritual.

Until quite recently, I couldn't imagine a better performance of this repertoire than this by Les Arts Florissants. But I've discovered a competitor, two recordings by Il Complesso Barocco of the complete duets of Monteverdi. Spend a few dollars in a worthwhile manner and get both groups; the comparison is thrilling. Except for the American soprano Jill Feldman, all the singers of Les Arts Florissants are French. All the singers on the duet CDs of Il Complesso Barocco are Italian. I won't offer a preference here and now. Both conductors, by the way, are anglophones. One group is all about tone and the other is all about phrasing. If you can't hear the difference, I'm wasting my time writing reviews.

Highest recommendation! I'll be giving my extra copy to a very good friend for her birthday."