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 heading "Sestina: Lacrime d'amante al sepolcro dell'amata," a memorial to the composer's wife, who had died in 1607. The performance by
Delitiae Musicae, led by
Marco Longhini, is notable for its intense expressivity and its extremely slow tempos. A performance of the Sixth Book is on average about 65 minutes;
Longhini's lasts very close to an hour and a half. Given the composer's own instructions, "speed and quality do not go well together," as well as the comments of his contemporaries on appropriate performance practice of Monteverdi's madrigals, these tempi are theoretically justifiable. The question remains as to whether the extreme tempos are convincing in performance, and here
Longhini is persuasive -- the madrigals are almost unbearably poignant. The performers never let the energy lag, and the anguished, prolonged dissonances make the delayed resolutions all the sweeter. This performance aesthetic may not be to everyone's taste, but it certainly is justifiable, and some listeners may find it fully compelling. The sound of the ensemble of men's voices, as opposed to a mixed group, is a matter of personal preference as well; both options were open to performers of Monteverdi's time. The countertenor of
Delitiae Musicae is not a typically sweet-voiced, pure male soprano; his voice is darker, throatier, penetrating, with enough bite to cut through the texture of the rest of the ensemble. Again, it will be the listener's preference that determines whether or not the sound is pleasing. In addition to the Sixth Book, the set contains a solo version of Lamento d'Arianna, and several other uncollected madrigals, some of which receive their first recording here. Naxos' sound is lively and natural sounding. This idiosyncratic recording should be of interest to adventurous listeners willing to entertain alternatives to some of the conventional wisdom of early Baroque performance practice.