La Venexiana - Monteverdi: Ottavo Libro dei Madrigali (2005)

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 that subtly conflates the two ideas. Monteverdi's setting, for a low voice, is moody, involved, and philosophical. The Italian early Baroque specialist group La Venexiana plays up these traits with a slow tempo that stretches the work out to nearly a 15-minute length. The later Monteverdi madrigals, for solo voice or voices and the continuo, lend themselves to a variety of interpretations, and there are several good recordings despite the demands of the music. La Venexiana's readings are restrained, with eyes cast backward toward the intellectual qualities of the Renaissance madrigal. The churning instrumental work and vocal fireworks heard in many Monteverdi performances are almost completely absent. Tempos are slow throughout, and this set is the better part of an hour longer than the René Jacobs recording. If pieces like the famed Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorind seem to lack the proper level of intensity, the lovingly detailed Lamento della Ninfa (CD 3, track 3) and many of the more arcane pieces have an intense, hypnotic effect. Perhaps the best way to think about this recording is to imagine it as chamber-sized and madrigal-esque, while those by Jacobs and Rinaldo Alessandrini and Jacobs are garden-sized and operatic. Monteverdi works either way, but this is the set to have if you are deeply into Monteverdi and want to contemplate the mysteries of his career at two in the morning.