Search - Sigismondo d'India, Claudio Monteverdi, Nigel Rogers Chiaroscuro :: Sigismondo d'India and Claudio Monteverdi: Mannerist Madrigals

Stylistically on the mark

Leslie Richford | Selsingen, Lower Saxony | 12/24/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"When Claudio Monteverdi?s madrigals are spoken of, the early music fan automatically thinks of Anthony Rooley and his famous ensemble The Consort of Musicke, who in the course of the early music revival recorded all of Monteverdi?s Madrigal Books for Decca and Virgin. But there are other ensembles who have given us a taste of what the ?seconda prattica? should sound like, if only for a selection of madrigals. One of those is Nigel Rogers?s Chiaroscuro, accompanied here by the instrumentalists of London Baroque on a 1981 analogue recording made at London?s Abbey Road studios and including not only six of Monteverdi?s most popular (and perhaps most typical) pieces from Books 6 through 8 of his madrigal collections but also a single madrigal and a cycle by Monteverdi?s younger Sicilian contemporary Sigismondo d?India, whose work is even today fairly rare.



The instrumentalists on this recording are well-known for their work on early music, but only Jakob Lindberg, lute, and John Toll, harpsichord, really get a chance to shine as the two violins are only used for one piece and Charles Medlam on the viola da gamba just plays the bass line together with the harpsichord. It is the vocal lines that take centre-stage: Nigel Rogers and John Potter (the latter of Hilliard Ensemble and Red Byrd fame) as two excellent, stylistically on-the-mark tenors, David Thomas as a sturdy bass (he has also recorded Monteverdi with Anthony Rooley) and Patrizia Kwella and Wendy Burger as two superb sopranos. The objections raised to the singing by a fellow Amazonite must be the result of not understanding the way this music works, personally I found this to be a well-nigh perfect Monteverdi recording with some wonderful duets and terzetts, the voices warbling and trembling to indicate the emotions involved: that is why the disc is titled, ?Manneristic madrigals?. Rogers and his team make sure you hear the boldness and the expressiveness of both composers very clearly.



As the recording quality is excellent (although there is just a little tape noise), I can only recommend this to listeners who want a taste of early 17th century Italian madrigal in its most progressive form.

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