CLAUDIO MONTEVERDI (1567-1643)

Concerto. Settimo Libro dei Madrigali, 1619

CD I
1 Symphonia - Tempro la Cetra
2 Ohimè, dov’è il mio ben
3 Ah, che non si conviene
4 Vaga su spina ascosa
5 Se i languidi miei sguardi
6 Chiome d’oro
7 Interrotte speranze
8 Tu dormi?
9 Ecco vicine, o bella Tigre
10 Non è di gentil core
11 Eccomi pronta ai baci
12 Soave libertate
13 Vorrei baciarti
14 Se’l vostro cor
15 A quest’olmo

CD II
1 Con che soavità
2 Parlo, miser, o taccio?
3 Perché fuggi tra salci
4 Augellin
5 O come sei gentile
6 Se pur destina
7 Amor che deggio far
8 Non vedrò mai le stelle
9 Io son pur vezzosetta
10 Al lume delle stelle
11 Tornate, o cari baci
12 O viva fiamma
13 Dice la mia belissima Licori
14 Tirsi e Clori. Ballo

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About this CD

In 1619 Monteverdi dedicated his Seventh Book of Madrigals to Catherine de’ Medici, Duchess of Mantua. He chooses a title which in itself is a declaration of intentions: Concerto. The concerto’s dimension implies a certain diversity, and in this sense the Seventh Book marks a turning-point. The new publication renounces the classic five-voice setting (that had monopolized the first six books) in favour of a very ample formal variety: madrigals for one, two, three, four and six voices are found side by side with “other song genres”, as the composer specifies on the frontispiece. In its extreme variety of accents, forms and settings (for the first time the instruments have a prominent role and are not limited to that of continuo), the Seventh Book forms a kind of imaginary theatre: stories which unfold and disappear, fragments of idylls, tragedies and even comedies, but of whose protagonists, temporal and spatial setting we are totally unaware.

Glossa retrieves for its Monteverdi Edition a recording from 1998, which marked the beginning of the love affair between La Venexiana and the great Claudio. In this carefully revised edition with new texts, translations, and design, listeners and readers will find an inexhaustible fountain of pleasure through a delightful musical and poetic journey to early 17th-century Venice.

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