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Track(s) taken from CDA66021

Confitebor tibi Domine, SV266

composer
setting II; a 3 voci concertato con due violini; from Selva morale e spirituale (1640/1)
author of text
Psalm 110 (111)

Emma Kirkby (soprano), Ian Partridge (tenor), David Thomas (bass), The Parley of Instruments
Recording details: February 1981
St Jude-on-the-Hill, Hampstead Garden Suburb, London, United Kingdom
Produced by Martin Compton
Engineered by Tony Faulkner
Release date: April 1985
Total duration: 5 minutes 40 seconds

Cover artwork: Angel playing a rebec (c1500). A linden-wood sculpture statuette, South German
Reproduced by courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Cloisters Collections, New York
 

Reviews

‘There are few records of Monteverdi's solo vocal music as persuasive as this … superb’ (The Penguin Guide to Compact Discs)

‘Wonderful. Performed with the vigour, intelligence and sense of sheer enjoyment of the music that one would expect from this group of artists’ (International Record Review)

‘One of the most beautiful records I have heard this year’ (The Guardian)

‘Music of exhilarating inspiration, superbly performed. A recording as near as may be to the ideal … a very remarkable recording indeed. For audiophile and music-lovers, this is essential’ (Hi-Fi News)

‘If you don't already own this joyous disc … add it to your collection without delay. It will repay the outlay a hundred times’ (Goldberg)

‘Emma Kirkby is at her bewitching best’ (Amazon.co.uk)
No fewer than six settings of Psalm 110 by Monteverdi have survived. The three included on this disc are quite different and demonstrate that Monteverdi was more interested in using the framework of the Psalm to explore different formal schemes than in characterizing the meaning of individual words. This one, the second of three in the Selva morale, is almost entirely in the flowing triple time associated with Venetian opera, and is built on a long modulating ground bass. Monteverdi treats it fairly freely and marks off each statement with a short passage of duple time. Such experiments with ground-bass techniques were very much in the air in the 1630s.

from notes by Peter Holman © 1981

Six versions du Psaume 110 par Monteverdi nous sont parvenues. Les trois que nous présentons sur ce disque sont tellement différentes qu’elles montrent bien que Monteverdi cherchait davantage à utiliser le cadre du psaume pour explorer diverses combinaisons formelles qu’a caractériser la signification de chaque mot. Cette version, la seconde des trois dans le Selva morale, est presqu’entièrement composée dans la gracieuse mesure à trois temps que l’on associe à l’opéra vénitien, et part d’une longue basse obstinée avec des modulations. Monteverdi la traite assez librement et sépare chaque phrase avec un bref passage en mesure à deux temps. Ce genre d’expérience avec des techniques de basse obstinée étaient courantes dans les années 1630.

extrait des notes rédigées par Peter Holman © 1981
Français: Madeleine Jay

Sage und schreibe sechs Vertonungen von Psalm 110 sind von Monteverdi überliefert. Die drei auf dieser Aufnahme sind so unterschiedlich, daß sie den Beweis für Monteverdis größeres Interesse an der Verwendung des Psalms als Rahmen zur Erforschung verschiedener formaler Schemata als an der Charakterisierung der Bedeutung einzelner Worte erbringen. Dieser Psalm, der zweite von drei aus der Selva morale ist fast ausschließlich im fließenden Tripeltakt der venezianischen Oper und baut sich auf einen langen modulierenden Grundbaß auf. Monteverdi behandelt den Vers recht freizügig und hakt jeden Satz mit einer kurzen Passage aus Zweiertakten ab. Solche Experimente mit der Grundbaßtechnik lagen im ersten Drittel des 17. Jahrhunderts überall in der Luft.

aus dem Begleittext von Peter Holman © 1981
Deutsch: Meckie Hellary

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