View of Mantua where Monteverdi worked 1590-1613
Monteverdi – Flaming Heart
Monteverdi series No.1
The first in I Fagiolini’s new series for Chandos Records offers a wide selection of his works, a capella, with continuo and strings from Book IV to VIII, a selection that demonstrates both the extraordinary compass of his art and his unprecedented depth and subtlety of response to a text.
In recent years, have we settled for a certain lack of danger in our search for an ‘ideal’ Monteverdi? I Fagiolini’s The Full Monteverdi revealed a new side to this music: a Monteverdi of both beauty and horror, colourful, vivid, sometimes chaste, sometimes dirty, and always completely alive.
“Put together with imagination, wit and profound admiration for the expressive power of Monteverdi’s word setting.” The Guardian
“This superbly sung programme of madrigals… ecstatic tenderness… the fiercely passionate climaxes of Anima mia, perdona come to life with overwhelming intensity.” The Daily Telegraph
More notes about performing decisions taken for this recording, by Robert Hollingworth.
Chandos CHAN 0730
Released November 2006
