Performers
- Hanna Bayodi-Hirt soprano
- Barbora Kabatkova soprano
- Margarita Slepakova alto
- Olivier Coiffet tenor
- Piotr Pieron bass
- Furio Zanasi bass
- Ricercar Consort
- Augustin Lusson violin
- Jérôme van Waerbeke violin
- Anna Pokrzywińska viola (concert No. 23)
- Miriam Shalinsky violone
- Julien Wolfs harpsichord (concert No. 23) / positive organ (No. 36)
- Daniel Zapico theorbo
- Philippe Pierlot viola da gamba, artistic direction
Programme
Claudio Monteverdi Madrigals, Book 8 (selection)
Il lamento della ninfa (The Nymph’s Lament), SV 163 (lyr. Ottavio Rinuccini) [7’]
Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda (The Combat of Tancredi and Clorinda), SV 153 (lyr. Torquato Tasso) [20’]
Hor che’l ciel e la terra e‘l vento tace (Now That Heaven and Earth and the Wind are silent), SV 147 (lyr. Francesco Petrarca) [9’]
Concert description
Ricercar Consort *Philippe Pierlot travel around the world with the help of Wallonie-Brussels International
The title of Claudio Monteverdi’s Book VIII (published in 1638) simply implies that it contains madrigals. And yet, the compositions included in it are by no means homogeneous. For this fact to become patent, it is enough to compare Hor che’l ciel e la terra, The Lament of the Nymph, and The Combat of Tancredi and Clorinda, three pieces drawing on the work of remarkable Italian poets.
The first one is akin to the kind of madrigal that in the beginning of the 17th century was already slowly going out of fashion. Written for six voices, it comprises two parts and several contrasting sections. Seeking to modernise the piece, Monteverdi backed the vocal ensemble with instruments.
The Lament of the Nymph is a small dramatic scene in which a three-voice male ensemble comments on the pain of an abandoned woman (repeating miserella, meaning “poor”), and the woman herself complains about having been betrayed by her lover.
The Combat, on the other hand, is a whole epic story, a rendition of a tragic thread from Jerusalem Delivered by Torquato Tasso. Tancredi, a Christian knight, falls in love with Clorinda, a Muslim woman, and his opponent in the crusade. The feeling is mutual, but Clorinda values honour over affection. So, she puts on a disguise and takes Tancredi on in a duel. Having lost, with her dying breath, she reveals her true identity and asks for baptism.
Dominika Micał, “Ruch Muzyczny”