CLAUDIO MONTEVERDI 1567-1643

 

1.         Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda (Madrigali guerrieri, et amorosi / Libro ottavo, 1638)

Patrizia Ciofi (Clorinda), Topi Lehtipuu (Tancredi), Rolando Villazón (Testo)

2.         Ecco di dolci raggi il sol armato (Scherzi musicali, 1632)

Rolando Villazón

3.         Sì dolce è ’l tormento (scherzo delle ariose vaghezze, 1624)

Rolando Villazón

4.         Eri già tutta mia (Scherzi musicali, 1632)

Rolando Villazón

5.         Ohimè ch’io cado, ohimè (Quarto scherzo delle ariose vaghezze, 1624)

Patrizia Ciofi

6.         Quel sguardo sdegnosetto (Scherzi musicali, 1632)

Patrizia Ciofi

7.         Interrotte speranze, eterna fede (Concerto: settimo libro di madrigali, 1619(

Topi Lehtipuu, Rolando Villazón

8.         Tornate, o cari baci     2:38 (Concerto: settimo libro di madrigali, 1619)

Topi Lehtipuu, Rolando Villazón

9.         Maledetto sia l’aspetto (Scherzi musicali, 1632)

Topi Lehtipuu

10.       Et è pur dunque vero (Scherzi musicali, 1632)

Topi Lehtipuu

11.       Più lieto il guardo (Arie de diversi, 1634)

Topi Lehtipuu

12.       Perché se m’odiavi      (Arie de diversi, 1634)

Topi Lehtipuu

13.       Tempro la cetra (Concerto: settimo libro di madrigali, 1619)

Topi Lehtipuu

14.       La mia turca  (Quarto scherzo delle ariose vaghezze, 1624)

Topi Lehtipuu

 

Rolando Villazón, Patrizia Ciofi, Topi Lehtipuu

Le Concert d’Astrée / Emmanuelle Haïm

 

“The atmosphere is electric. Villazón is pouring out Monteverdi’s beautiful lines of remorseful agony with spell-binding force. It’s his first foray into early music, but he tosses off the tricky idioms – the delicate, falling sospiri between notes, the hellishly difficult bouncing-ball repetitions on one note, the flexible tempi – as if he’s been doing them all his life. And what’s more, he invests them with thrilling urgency and passion. Even Haïm, directly form the harpsichord, seems amazed.”

Warwick Thompson

 

Emmanuelle Haïm and her ensemble Le Concert d’Astrée further their Monteverdi discography (after the highly successful Orfeo), with this recording of the tragic war madrigal ‘Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda’.

 

For what will certainly be considered a landmark recording, Emmanuelle Haïm has brought together a fine cast of singers: Rolando Villazón (his debut in the Baroque repertoire) plays the omnipresent narrator Terso, Patrizia Ciofi is the unfortunate Clorinda, and Finnish tenor Topi Lehtipuu, a recent recruit to the label (with the Mozart Mass in C), is Tancredi.

 

The operatic scena for three voices ‘Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda’ (published 1624) appears in Monteverdi’s eighth book of madrigals. The piece has a heart-wrenching libretto drawn from Torquato Tasso's ‘Il Gerusalemme Liberata’ (‘Jerusalem Delivered’, Canto XII, 52-62, 64-68), a romance set against a backdrop of the Crusades. Clorinda, a female warrior-maiden, joins the Muslims, but she falls in love with the Christian knight Tancred. During a night battle in which she sets the Christian siege tower on fire, she is mistakenly killed by her lover, but she converts to Christianity before dying.

 

In addition to Il Combattimento, each of the three singers offer a selection of madrigals and scherzi musicali, or little musical stories, all based on the theme of love.

 

[For this release there are two physical versions: a jewel-box CD version, & a digipack version (CD + bonus DVD).

 

The DVD (~40 min) is centred on Emmanuelle Haïm and Rolando Villazon, with interviews of each and footage of the recording session. – No. 3634022 ]

 

Virgin Classics 3633502