A warning to purists: there's little in the packaging of this CD to indicate the interpretive freedom with which the ensemble, l'Arpeggiata led by Christina Pluhar, treats some of the Monteverdi love songs and madrigals on the album. There's a hint in the opening track, the Toccata from Orfeo, in its wonderfully reckless abandon and prominent use of percussion. In Ohimè ch'io cado, the solo madrigal that follows it, the continuo part is transmogrified into a walking bass, the rhythm is swung, blue notes abound, and the ...
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A warning to purists: there's little in the packaging of this CD to indicate the interpretive freedom with which the ensemble, l'Arpeggiata led by Christina Pluhar, treats some of the Monteverdi love songs and madrigals on the album. There's a hint in the opening track, the Toccata from Orfeo, in its wonderfully reckless abandon and prominent use of percussion. In Ohimè ch'io cado, the solo madrigal that follows it, the continuo part is transmogrified into a walking bass, the rhythm is swung, blue notes abound, and the Baroque trumpet launches into frankly jazzy riffs between verses. We're clearly no longer in the land of scrupulously authentic period performance practice. It's followed by a traditional, but lusciously sensual performance of "Pur ti miro," from L'incoronazione di Poppea, its accompaniment as direct and heartfelt as that of an Appalachian folk song, sung with a smoldering -- no, scorching -- erotic charge, by soprano Núria Rial and counter tenor Philippe Jaroussky. So, the listener is...
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