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Monteverdi - Sweet Torment

The final volume of our three-CD Monteverdi conspectus, based on twenty years of performing these works throughout the world with my ensemble, I Fagiolini. Our style combines a thoroughly ‘Italianate’ passionate approach (based on understanding the 'affetto' of each work) with the ensemble skill and tuning that you’d expect from a British group.

A particular focus was my editorial harmonization of the continuo bass line. Monteverdi leaves almost no figures to imply what the harmony should be. Modern continuo practices often anachronistically extrapolate backwards from Handel or Corelli to play harmony implied by the singers’ notes but Monteverdi’s own harmonic preferences (to be found in his _a capella_ madrigals) suggest a simpler harmony from the lower three voices while upper voices create dissonance against that. E.g. a major third in the lower voices with its minor version in the upper. Accepting such dissonance as a Monteverdian colour allowed a reappraisal of important moments such as ‘piango’ (weeping) in the two-voice ‘Zefiro torna’ (4’45 Track 5) and revealed the oft-ignored but crucial f natural in 'Zefiro' (1’25 Track 5) in which the sweetness of the word ‘soavi’ is its minor clash against the accompaniment’s major.

This CD includes 'Ballo dell’Ingrate' (recorded for the first time with its original 1608 libretto). My research into the time relationships between sections (based on medieval practices) paid expressive dividends in characterizing the different dance movements and rescued more than one pavan from its (normally played) quickstep.

'Ballo' has suffered from the lack of a Plutone with a combination of a huge range, 17th-century throat-articulated ornamentation and a dramatic persona. Finding Jonathan Sells has finally provided this. We also used the latest research on contemporary string instruments, using George Stoppani’s Amati copy violins c.1595. (All five violins were set up at equal tension.)