CD Claudio Monteverdi: The Complete Madrgial Books

The extraordinary series of recordings of the nine published books of madrigals by Claudio Monteverdi, by Claudio Cavina, with him directing (and singing in) the Italian ensemble La Venexiana, is now being made available in an advantageously-priced box set on Glossa. Completed in 2006, this multi-award winning cycle set new standards in textual declamation, rhetorical colour and harmonic refinement, reflecting the individual singers grasp of the compositional pearls created by Monteverdi's poetic gems, with works spanning half a century. Some of the major works to be found in La Venexiana s survey include the 'Lamento della ninfa', the 'Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda' and the 'Lamento d Arianna'. An added attraction is the addition, as a bonus CD, of the 'Live in Corsica' album of Monteverdi madrigals recorded by La Venexiana in 2002. This limited edition box set reflects Glossa s innovative design style used for the individual volumes and includes all the original booklets as a pdf, plus a newly-commisioned essay from Stefano Russomanno, who wrote the notes for the individual volumes. He considers the entire span of these nine books, Monteverdi s compositional development as a radical, if not reforming artist, and his devotion, above all, to the word. Review ***** 'Don t hesitate to snap up this limited edition box-set from Glossa one of the most important Monteverdi releases of recent years.' --Adrian Horsewood - Early Music Today, December 2014 February 2015