Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643)
Concerto. Settimo Libro dei Madrigali

CD1
Symphonia
Tempro la Cetra
Ohimè, dov’è il mio ben
Ah, che non si conviene
Vaga su spina ascosa
Se i languidi miei sguardi
Chiome d’oro
Interrotte speranze
Tu dormi?
Ecco vicine, o bella Tigre
Non è di gentil core
Eccomi pronta ai baci
Soave libertate
Vorrei baciarti
Se’l vostro cor
A quest’olmo

CD2
Con che soavità
Parlo, miser, o taccio?
Perché fuggi tra salci
Augellin
O come sei gentile
Se pur destina
Amor che deggio far
Non vedrò mai le stelle
Io son pur vezzosetta
Al lume delle stelle
Tornate, o cari baci
O viva fiamma
Dice la mia bellissima Licori
Tirsi e Clori. Ballo

In 1619 Monteverdi dedicated his Seventh Book of Madrigals to Catherine de’ Medici, Duchess of Mantua. He chooses a title which in itself is a declaration of intentions: Concerto. The concerto’s dimension implies a certain diversity, and in this sense the Seventh Book marks a turning-point. The new publication renounces the classic five-voice setting (that had monopolized the first six books) in favour of a very ample formal variety: madrigals for one, two, three, four and six voices are found side by side with “other song genres”, as the composer specifies on the frontispiece. In its extreme variety of accents, forms and settings (for the first time the instruments have a prominent role and are not limited to that of continuo), the Seventh Book forms a kind of imaginary theatre: stories which unfold and disappear, fragments of idylls, tragedies and even comedies, but of whose protagonists, temporal and spatial setting we are totally unaware.

Glossa retrieves for its Monteverdi Edition a recording from 1998, which marked the beginning of the love affair between La Venexiana and the great Claudio. In this carefully revised edition with new texts, translations, and design, listeners and readers will find an inexhaustible fountain of pleasure through a delightful musical and poetic journey to early 17th-century Venice.