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Reviewer: Alexandra Coghlan In 2017 master of madrigals Rinaldo Alessandrini and Concerto Italiano ripped up the rulebook with ‘Night – Stories of Lovers and Warriors’ (6/17), a recital that roamed across decades of Monteverdi to explore its nocturnal theme in a continuous flow of musical narrative. Now, four years later, we finally get the follow-up. ‘Daylight – Stories of Songs, Dances and Loves’ comes with a caveat from Alessandrini, who acknowledges in his introduction that ‘perhaps this is a not a project intended for purists’. But it would take a peculiarly wilful kind of puritanism not to fall for a recording that might reject the neat confines of complete books of madrigals in favour of creating instead a rich and surprising patchwork of pieces all connected in a coherent arc of storytelling. It’s a programme that must be dazzling live, with the possibility of staging to support its operatic ambitions. On disc it takes concentration and multiple listenings to expose the careful thematic and musical stitching that’s concealed behind the sonic facade. This volume spans half a century of musical development from the Book 2 madrigals of 1590 right through to 1643’s L’incoronazione di Poppea, with stop-offs at most of the other madrigal collections along the way as well as Orfeo, Ulisse and the Scherzi musicali, with instrumental dances by Biagio Marini and Andrea Falconiero providing crucial connecting tissue. The group have recorded many of the works before but there’s delight in hearing how new context – both in terms of programming and era – has changed them. There’s fresh sensuality to daybreak lovers’ encounter ‘Non si levav’ ancor l’alba novella’ thanks to syncopations that tug and twist that ‘felice notte’ into delicious contortions against the instrumental accompaniment. The ravishing soprano duet ‘Chiome d’oro, bel tesoro’ has a newly diaphanous, filmy lightness thanks to sopranos Monica Piccinini and Sonia Tedla as well as a slightly swifter tempo. Together with alto Andres Montilla, these singers provide the youthful gloss on a recording where lower voices take us once again into rougher, more brutally expressive territory. Alessandrini’s scheme is most effective when it takes miniatures and strings them into fully developed sequences. The contrasts and variations of the three ‘Sù, sù, sù’ madrigals (almost 20 years between them) and the developing thought process they represent is just one of many examples. You may find more richly dramatic accounts of the individual operas (scenes from which don’t quite hit the ground at full dramatic speed, vocally), but you’d struggle to name a more beguiling whole of its kind. L’Arpeggiata’s ‘Teatro d’amore’ (Virgin/Erato, 6/09) comes close but lacks the scope and boldness of ‘Daylight’ – Monteverdi remade as new. |
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