Rinaldo Alessandrini's brilliantly realized recording of Monteverdi's Vespers is an intimate, slightly pared down version of the early Baroque masterpiece. Working in the warm acoustic of Rome's Palazzo Farnese, he employs just one singer per part, and eliminates instrumental doublings in the choral movements except where they are expressly ...
Claudio Monteverdi's late works, like those of Beethoven, contain singular mixtures of simplicity and complexity. Book Eight of his madrigals are about love and war, themes as elemental as they come. Yet consider the madrigal Ogni amante è guerrier (Every Lover is a Warrior, track 6 on the first CD of this set), with its text by Ottavio Rinuccini ...
Ambitious even by Jordi Savall's standards, Isabel I: Reina de Castilla (Isabella I: Queen of Spain) is a single disc that attempts nothing less than a musical portrait of Spain during Isabella's rule. The queen is known to Americans principally as the monarch who dispatched Columbus to sail the ocean blue, but several of her other actions (and ...
This three-disc box combines several recordings by the Concerto Italiano and leader Rinaldo Alessandrini, dating back to 1998; the result is a complete set of Monteverdi's madrigals of Book Eight. The word "madrigal" was fast losing its meaning by this late stage in Monteverdi's career, and the works contained here are of various kinds. One can ...
Jordi Savall, viol player, conductor, expert in early music performance practice, and founder of the ensembles Hespèrion XXI and La Capella Reial de Catalunya is responsible for what must be one of the most creatively and sumptuously packaged recordings ever produced. This two-SACD set gathers vocal and instrumental music from the era of Cervantes ...
Rinaldo Alessandrini, founder and director of Concerto Italiano, is an advocate of an extreme flexibility of tempo in performing Monteverdi, and he cites the writings of the composer himself and his contemporaries on the use of sprezzatura (studied carelessness) in rhythmic vocal delivery. His performances have a wonderful naturalness and ...
For fans of the pomp and majesty of royalty, here's a collection of music for Isabel I, the Queen of Castilla (1454 -- 1504). Conceived, compiled, and conducted by Jordi Savall and performed by La Capella Reial de Catalunya with Hesperion XXI, the music is an impressive mixture of hymns and marches, songs and dances, strength and sensitivity. ...
Harmonie Universelle II is the second of what seems to be an ongoing series of compilations issued by Alia Vox, the label founded by Catalan gambist Jordi Savall and singer Montserrat Figueras. It is labeled "Portrait Alia Vox 2001-2004," but one might even be permitted to speak of greatest hits: the label's sales are approaching the figure of one ...
Rinaldo Alessandrini, founder and director of Concerto Italiano, is an advocate of an extreme flexibility of tempo in performing Monteverdi, and he cites the writings of the composer himself and his contemporaries on the use of sprezzatura (studied carelessness) in rhythmic vocal delivery. His performances have a wonderful naturalness and ...
Jordi Savall, performer, researcher, and promoter of early music, has become known for beautifully produced thematic collections organized around topics as diverse as the worlds of Miguel Cervantes, Christopher Columbus, and Caravaggio, performed by his ensembles Hespèrion XX (and XXI), and La Capella Reial de Catalunya, and recorded on his own ...
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