The vocal and instrumental early music ensemble Delitiae Musicae continues its project of recording all of Monteverdi's madrigals for Naxos with his Sixth Book, published in 1614. The Sixth was his first book of madrigals published after his epochal operas La Favola d'Orfeo and L'Arianna, and Vespro della Beata Vergine. The madrigals, for five voices, look backward to the stile antico of his work before the operas, and are in a sense his swan song for that phase of his compositional life. The Sixth Book is unified by a ...
Read More
The vocal and instrumental early music ensemble Delitiae Musicae continues its project of recording all of Monteverdi's madrigals for Naxos with his Sixth Book, published in 1614. The Sixth was his first book of madrigals published after his epochal operas La Favola d'Orfeo and L'Arianna, and Vespro della Beata Vergine. The madrigals, for five voices, look backward to the stile antico of his work before the operas, and are in a sense his swan song for that phase of his compositional life. The Sixth Book is unified by a theme of loss and sadness and the necessity of letting go of the past. The first four madrigals are a polyphonic reworking of Lamento d'Arianna, taken from the opera, the rest of whose score is lost. The lament was reportedly the most popular piece of music of its time; a contemporary of Monteverdi's reported, "there was no home that possessed either harpsichords or lutes, that did not also possess a copy of that lament." Another six madrigals are grouped together under the...
Read Less