The reviewing panel of the British magazine Gramophone has chosen this year to honour the second recording made for Glossa by La Compagnia del Madrigale: Luca Marenzio’s Primo Libro di Madrigali, 1580. At a ceremony held in the Baroque church of St John’s Smith Square in London on September 17, one of the Italian vocal ensemble’s founder members, soprano Rossana Bertini, stepped up to collect the Early Music prize at the 2014 Gramophone Classical Music Awards.
La Compagnia del Madrigale came into being only at the end of the last decade, although the principal members have all had abundant experience in madrigal ensembles, notably with another Gramophone Award-winning group from Glossa, La Venexiana.
Luca Marenzio’s name has often appeared in collections of madrigals encompassing many other composers, but there have been few opportunities, to date, for a concentrated sampling of madrigals by this Brescia-born musician, born in 1553 or 54, who had moved to Rome in his early twenties. Marenzio’s first book of madrigals was published at the outset of his composing career in 1580, which opens up the question as to how successful he was at that early point in his life in writing in the madrigal form. We have asked two more of La Compagnia del Madrigale’s founder members – bass, Daniele Carnovich and tenor, Giuseppe Maletto – for their views on this and other aspects of Luca Marenzio. Here, their response is:
“With the Primo Libro we are presented with a composer already in full possession of his abilities. There is an innate elegance and clarity in Marenzio’s writing, as well as a great capacity for adapting perfectly to all the expressive situations posed by the poetic texts he was setting. Offering to the public the first published work of this marvellous composer, neglected today, seemed to us be something of a duty. But at the same time it has been a great pleasure to discover and sing this lovely music, so alive and so inspiring.”
When Luca Marenzio was publishing his Primo Libro di Madrigali in Rome – he dedicated it to his patron, cardinal Luigi d’Este, a member of the Ferrara family and related to the Valois dynasty of Louis XII of France – the Eternal City was beginning to enjoy one of its periods of splendour, epitomized in the term la dolce vita (an epoch, incidentally, which Marco Bizzarini conjures up wonderfully in the accompanying essay to this recording). Do the singers feel that the composer was able to summon up this spirit in his music?
“Considering this question in terms of the cinema, we might say that the madrigals of Marenzio acted as the ‘soundtrack’ for the Roman dolce vita of that time. Whilst we do not know how much that cultural atmosphere may have influenced Marenzio is his way of writing, yet the publishing success of this first book had no precedents – nor was it equalled by any of the later books. The reasons for this level of success are plainly evident: Marenzio’s style is a new one, immediate and ‘fresh’, and very much wedded to the text: it is a style which is always agreeable and attractive for the listener (and for the singer also, we might add!).”
As well as including all the madrigal’s from Marenzio’s Primo Libro this Glossa recording also adds an intriguing sestina – six poetic stanzas all set to music – composed by Marenzio and five of his contemporaries (Nanino, Boscaglia, de Macque, Soriano and Zoilo). What was La Compagnia del Madrigale’s purpose in including this work?
“The sestina provides us with the opportunity to hear and compare the different styles of those who were Marenzio’s principal colleagues in Rome. The work consists of a collaboration between six composers, something which we find both most unusual and also very interesting.”
On either side of this recording, the ensemble has also applied its manifold musicality as well as its vast madrigalian experience to two collections by Marenzio’s contemporary, Carlo Gesualdo – the Book 6 of madrigals and the Responsoria. How might one see Luca Marenzio im the light of other musicians composing madrigals at the end of the sixteenth century, such as Monteverdi, Gesualdo and Sigismondo d’India, to name but three?
“Marenzio is one of the most complete composers of his time. Everything makes one think that if he had lived longer – he died in 1599 – he would have probably been able to compete with Monteverdi in the nascent genre of music theatre. Possibly, along with Jaches de Wert and Claudio Monteverdi, Marenzio can be considered as one of the three greatest composers of madrigals, capable of dominating the entire range of emotional expressions and responses: joy, pain, sensuality, describing Nature, etc. Marenzio, along with de Wert, played a decisive role in Monteverdi’s musical training; both were very influential and constant sources of inspiration for the great Claudio. As well as these great figures, it is definitely worth mentioning Luzzasco Luzzaschi, of whom unfortunately a large part of his output has been lost. The extraordinary figure of Gesualdo is more that of an ‘outsider’ as much for his special condition of being a prince, as for his extraordinary musical inclination; he was a true ’specialist’ in moving and heart-breaking tonal values, in which he was capable of electrifying insights, delivering results which were unique in many ways. The youngest composer in this group, Sigismondo d’India who, although very talented, could perhaps be regarded as a more marginal figure, although he was strongly influenced by both Gesualdo and Monteverdi.”
Though as an ensemble of musicians working together under this name, La Compagnia del Madrigale is but young in years, its experience as musicians singing both together and with other groups is vast, and its knowledge of its chosen repertory is colossal. In that light, we asked, finally, Daniele Carnovich and Giuseppe Maletto, on behalf of the ensemble, for their reaction to the Gramophone Award.
“Most assuredly we are very happy to win this Gramophone Award and we take a great pride in the realization that across all the elements of the Early Music category – amounting to hundreds of musicians and recordings – they have decided to give the prize to our CD. But the greater satisfaction for us is to have merited this prize with a recording of music by Luca Marenzio. The fact that this award has fallen on a disc of Luca Marenzio encourages us to follow the path that we have set out on in the study of lesser-known composers; we are very happy to learn that many people possess very refined palates so as to be able to appreciate some ‘tasty morsels’ as these which are a little different to the same old names that tend to crop up, and it thrills us to have contributed in a way that the figure of Marenzio becomes a little less neglected. To put it another way, we are undoubtedly very happy for us ourselves, but also for him! We hope that he would also be happy with our recording, a sincere homage to his work and to his stature as a composer.”
All in all, this new Gramophone Award serves as a great encouragement for La Compagnia del Madrigale in its fabulous and ongoing coverage of the late sixteenth-century Italian madrigal – so continue to watch this space for more releases from this fine ensemble!
MARK WIGGINS© 2014 Note 1 Music / Glossa Music