Monteverdi’s beguiling songs of life and love.
In the early 1600s, Claudio Monteverdi altered the course of music history by rethinking the relationship between words and music. In his madrigals – secular songs of love and loss for combined voices – he let his music be controlled completely by text, to be filled with its clarity, shaped by its consonants and syllables and infused with its emotional depth.
The result is a collection of ‘inexhaustibly beguiling masterpieces’ (The Guardian) – visceral and sensual works whose stories still feel powerful, truthful and relevant today.
No ensemble on earth has a closer relationship to Monteverdi’s madrigals than Concerto Italiano, who with conductor Rinaldo Alessandrini have recently completed a 28-year project to record the works in their entirety. Gramophone magazine described the results as ‘riveting and incredibly stylish’.
Alessandrini and Concerto Italiano come to Bergen for a performance of highlights from Monteverdi’s madrigal output at Håkonshallen. This is music of deep intimacy and high expression that delights in the sound and style of the Italian language as much as it plumbs the depths of human emotion.
Image on top: Rinaldo Alessandrini. Photo: Emilie Moysson