Customer Reviews

Monteverdi: Madrigali guerrieri ed amorosi

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First things first.
'Cornet', with a single T, is a perfectly acceptable spelling of the word for the Baroque cornetto - cornett, cornetta, cornèta, Kornett, cornet à bouquin, corno, cornio, Zink, Zinge, Zinggen and Recht Chor-Zink (et cetera) are all historical variations. The spelling with the single T was the original spelling - the double T spelling was adopted in the 20th century to save confusion with the cornett's modern brass band name sake.

Okay! So what's this CD like?
Well, its pretty good and much of it is very good. The music is 'orchestrated' with cornet(t)s, trombones, a dulcian and percussion - as well as the violins, viols and continuo mentioned by the composer. Maybe René Jacobs is suggesting that this music might have been performed like this for an aristocratic audience? Maybe, maybe not, however, Monteverdi and/or his publisher only suggest strings and continuo in the instrumental forces needed to perform this music. The cornetts and sackbuts sound splendid in madrigals like 'Altri canti d'Amor' even if their inclusion would have surprised Claudio Monteverdi! The string and continuo groups play very well and very idiomatically.

This brings us to the question of the voices used. Some of the singers are simply too operatic in their approach for this kind of music. One of the tenors sings in a highly charged way that would not be out of place in 19th century Italian opera. Bernarda Fink, as usual, uses too much vibrato - more than one would reasonably expect in a modern performance of Mozart or, indeed, Verdi - let alone Monteverdi! However, there is some great singing here, too - Maria Cristina Kiehr is an excellent Monteverdian. When the voices all sing together, as in 'Altri Canti d'Amore', the voices tend to jar and there is little sense of ensemble. We are presented with a group of not terribly compatible soloists singing together rather than a traditional madrigal vocal ensemble. Of course, this is my response to this recording and others may be delighted with this approach.

This is the first truly complete L'ottavo libro de madrigali available in one set on two CDs and for that reason it is a worthy introduction to this music.

Alessandrini's group and Anthony Rooley's The Consort of Musicke have also recorded these works and I have enjoyed all these different interpretations. Jacobs can be perverse and wayward in his interpretations but he can also make the music sing and dance like no one else. I will continue to enjoy most of his opera recordings and most of this madrigal set.

Though I have not listened to this particular CD of Monteverdi's Madrigali guerrieri et amoroso, I'm certain that cornets, the modern small brass instrument used in marching bands would not be appropriate. A cornett (or cornetti) the Renaissance wind instrument, made of wood and covered in leather, was used by Monteverdi, and would be quite appropriate, and I think that is what is being used in the CD.