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Track(s) taken from CDA66814

Ben venga maggio

composer
Anonymous - Renaissance
3vv
author of text
Angelo Poliziano (1454-1494)
stanzas 1 & 4 of 8

Sirinu
Recording details: February 1995
The Warehouse, Waterloo, London, United Kingdom
Produced by Ben Turner
Engineered by Antony Howell & Ben Turner
Release date: September 1995
Total duration: 3 minutes 32 seconds
 

Other recordings available for download

The Orlando Consort

Reviews

‘An excellent and hugely enjoyable recording’ (Early Music Review)

‘Sarah Stowe … is perfectly suited for this music. She has an astonishing capacity to alter the character of her voice, sounding on occasion sweet and pure, on others sexy and alluring, and sometimes even downright common, which really helps the text come alive. An excellent disc for newcomers to this sort of music, and for aficionados’ (Classic CD)
After the rigours of Lent, and the singing of penitential laudas such as Lorenzo’s O maligno e duro core, the city returned to festivity in the spring. Poliziano wrote the text for Ben venga maggio in the 1470s for the May festival, when jousting by the wealthy sons of Florentine magnates was still common. The song bears a rubric in one source: ‘Performed by the young women while the jousters were entering into the arena.’ Various Florentine lauda poets adopted the music of this song, as did Savonarola.

from notes by Patrick Macey © 2022

Other albums featuring this work

The Florentine Renaissance
The Orlando Consort
Studio Master: CDA68349 Early Choral Music OffersStudio Master FLAC & ALAC downloads available

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