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Track(s) taken from CDA68019

Zefiro torna e 'l bel tempo rimena, SV108

composer
Madrigals, Book 6
author of text

Arcangelo, Jonathan Cohen (conductor)
Studio Master FLAC & ALAC downloads available
CD-Quality:
Studio Master:
CD-Quality:
Studio Master:
Recording details: March 2013
St Jude-on-the-Hill, Hampstead Garden Suburb, London, United Kingdom
Produced by Adrian Peacock
Engineered by David Hinitt & Robert Cammidge
Release date: February 2014
Total duration: 3 minutes 46 seconds

Cover artwork: Flora (1559, detail). Jan Massys (1509-1575)
Private Collection / Bridgeman Images
 

Reviews

‘The latest disc from Jonathan Cohen’s virtuoso ensemble Arcangelo is a musical love story, complete with lovers’ quarrel, tearful partings and tragic endings. Bringing together the Sestinas from Books 6-8 of Monteverdi’s madrigals, the programme explores the gamut of the composer’s mature style, evolving from the crystallised 'prima prattica' perfection of Book 6 to the 'genere concitato' (agitated style) of Book 8. All of Cohen’s singers come from the world of opera, and it shows in performances that place the drama of 'le parole' to the fore. The astonishing harmonic flexibility and melodic narrative of Monteverdi’s writing translates here into urgent drama … among so much vocal athleticism, it’s still the instrumentalists of the ensemble that dominate, setting the disc apart from the excellent I Fagiolini recordings that come closest vocally to this kind of abandon. Sitting midway between the nervous energy of Alessandrini’s Concerto Italiano and the more measured intensity of Jordi Savall for the Book 8 works, Arcangelo’s musicians deploy rough-edged expressive risk-taking within a framework of complete stylistic control’ (Gramophone)

‘These are not easy pieces, but the opening ballet swings along with panache, and there is some excellent tenor solo singing in the first section … the two sopranos in the duet Ohimè, dov'è il mio ben show poise and taste’ (BBC Music Magazine)» More
PERFORMANCE
RECORDING

‘This is a wonderful disc, presenting Monteverdi the dramatist and the creator of vivid aural pictures. Presented in such vivid recorded sound and by such accomplished musicians, intuitively directed by the excellent Jonathan Cohen, it provides an invaluable and hugely attractive addition to the composer’s already generous representation on disc’ (International Record Review)» More
The Petrarch setting Zefiro torna e ’l bel tempo rimena from Book 6 conveys the intense pain of loss. Monteverdi sets the first two quatrains of the sonnet as though they were two stanzas of a strophic song, in a joyful dance-like triple time reflecting the pleasures of spring. When the poet contrasts this with his inner desolation, however, Monteverdi turns to a more sombre mood. Mention of the singing of birds and the love of women in lines 12 and 13 prompt a brief return to the joyous music of the opening before we are plunged into a tortured sequence of dissonances reflecting the poet’s anguish.

from notes by John Whenham © 2014

La mise en musique d’un texte de Pétrarque—Zefiro torna e ’l bel tempo rimena, tirée du Livre 6—véhicule l’intense douleur de la perte. Là, les deux premiers quatrains du sonnet sont traités comme autant de stances d’un chant strophique, dans un rythme ternaire dansant, écho des plaisirs printaniers. Mais que le poète oppose à cette joie sa désolation intime et Monteverdi passe à une atmosphère plus sombre. Le chant des oiseaux et l’amour des femmes (vers 12 et 13) suscitent un bref retour à la musique enjouée du départ, puis c’est la plongée dans une série torturée de dissonances, reflétant l’angoisse du poète.

extrait des notes rédigées par John Whenham © 2014
Français: Hypérion

Wenn Ohimè il bel viso eine recht gedämpfte Trauer andeutet, so drückt eine weitere Petrarca-Vertonung aus dem 6. Buch—Zefiro torna e ’l bel tempo rimena—den intensiven Schmerz des Verlusts aus. Monteverdi vertont die ersten beiden Quartette des Sonetts als seien sie die ersten beiden Strophen eines Liedes; es erklingt ein fröhlicher, tänzerischer Dreiertakt, in dem die Freuden des Frühlings zum Ausdruck kommen. Wenn der Dichter dies jedoch seiner innerlichen Verzweiflung gegenüberstellt, wendet sich Monteverdi einer trüberen Stimmung zu. Die Erwähnung von Vogelgesang und Frauenliebe in Zeile 12 und 13 bringt eine kurze Wiederkehr der fröhlichen Musik des Anfangs mit sich, bevor die Musik in eine gequälte Folge von Dissonanzen abtaucht, die den Schmerz des Dichters widerspiegelt.

aus dem Begleittext von John Whenham © 2014
Deutsch: Viola Scheffel

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