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Fanfare Magazine: 37:4 (03-04/2014)
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GCD 922802
8424562228023 (ID348)
Luca Marenzio (c.1553–99) spent his early years in Mantua, Ferrara, and Florence, where the nobles were interested in poetry, music, and painting. The madrigals heard here were the first book that he published, and two of these pieces were included in the first Marenzio CD that I heard (Fanfare 5:6; CD in 13:4). The first recording to offer a complete book of the composer’s madrigals was The First Book of Madrigals for Four Voices of 1585 (18:5), a more difficult ensemble to write for because the missing fifth voice would fill in the range of voices better (indeed, Marenzio never published a second book for four voices). Note the similar titles that are found elsewhere among his publications, since Marenzio counted the books as a separate series for each vocal ensemble. Hence the number of voices is integral to the title, but the title of this CD fails to specify, at least on the front cover, which book is heard here. Next on records came the Ninth Book for Five Voices of 1599 (33:2), the Sixth Book for Five Voices of 1594 (not reviewed here), and even the First Book of Spiritual Madrigals for Five Voices (30:2). There are also the usual collections drawn from several of Marenzio’s books.
The notes fill in the background of a Rome that knew la dolce vita as well as any other era in its history. This book was published in the year that Michel de Montaigne visited to describe what he witnessed. But the unedifying aspects of the city were fertile ground for Marenzio’s art. His patron was Cardinal Luigi d’Este, whose home in Rome is today the Quirinal Palace, the residence of the president of Italy. He made a striking contribution to the development of the madrigal in the mere 20 years before his early death. This Primo Libro follows the set of five-voice pieces with an eight-voice work, as Schütz later did in his Madrigals op. 1. The disc is filled out with a madrigal and a sestina (a set of six madrigals) from Dolci affetti of 1582 and a madrigal from 1577. The singing is exquisite, light and airy without affectation. From his position in the early years of the madrigal, Marenzio deserves more attention than he has so far received. This ensemble received abundant praise for its earlier Gesualdo (36:6), but Marenzio is more in need of attention. Perhaps it will continue beyond this first disc.
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