Merula: Canzonetta spirituale sopra alla nanna 'Hor ch'è il tempo di dormire'

Magdalena Kožená explores the early Italian Baroque music of Monteverdi and his contemporaries with rewarding results. Inspired by the improvisational nature of much of this music, Kožená reveals yet another aspect of her musical personality.

Teamed with the six string-instrumentalists and percussion of the acclaimed consort group Private Musicke, Magdalena Kožená delivers an album in a fascinatingly different setting from any of her previous Baroque recordings.

In music ranging from simple lamento to rollicking dance tunes, Magdalena Kožená unleashes her refined vocal and expressive abilities to convey every nuance implicit in the music and the texts.

“The Czech mezzo . . . produces one of the loveliest sounds to be heard on the world’s stages – a flowing, spring-water-like tone that evokes the term ‘luminous’.” (Opera News)

Tarquinio Merula (1594 or 1595-1665) was an Italian composer, organist and violinist of the early Baroque era. Although mainly active in Cremona, stylistically he was a member of the Venetian school and one of the most progressive Italian composers of the early 17th century, a key figure in the early development of several forms such as the cantata, the aria, the sonatas da chiesa and da camera, variations on a ground bass and the sinfonia.

One of the finest albums ever recorded by Montserrat Figueras, she has developed a reputation for the interpretation of early vocal music combining historical fidelity with vitality. In the 1970s, she rose to eminence as one of a generation of musicians who realised that vocal music before 1800 required a new technical and stylistic approach with emphasis on the poetic and spiritual dimension of the text. With the quality of her voice and the expertise of the ensemble backing her, including Jordi Savall and Ton Koopman, she brings an intimacy to her performances few other vocalists can match. Earlier this year, Jordi Savall was appointed European Union ambassador for intercultural dialogue.This distinction, together with the title of “Artist for Peace” that he shares with his wife Montserrat Figueras, marks the culmination and recognition of his work over more than 30 years on behalf of neglected and marginalised musical traditions and cultures such as those which flourished Spain before the Christian reconquest, as well as the musical dialogue between East and West.

What happens when you bring the worlds of jazz and Monteverdi together? Is there a musical meeting-point where the two can exist? Claudio Cavina has believed in this possibility for some time, witness some very ‘modern’ moments in his recent Glossa recordings of the Scherzi musicali and L’incoronazione di Poppea.

Yet, this is not La Venexiana playing jazz: Cavina and his musicians do not change a note of the original scores. Instead they bring all their experience and expertise of playing Monteverdi’s madrigals, sacred music (the 1610 Vespers being their current performing focus) and operas to bear on a group of ‘ballads’ from the 17th -century, but in the company of a select quartet of improvising jazz musicians on saxophone, accordion, double bass and drums and all with the warm, soaring, story-telling vocal tones of Roberta Mameli shining through as protagonist.

The clue lies in the album’s title, with the musicians tipping their hats and paying hommage to jazz standards. And Cavina says that within Monteverdi’s music, “there is something modern, something new and innovatory which encourages one to dare, to go further.”

Just listen to the results…

The programme, entitled ‘Not Just Dowland’ sets the father of English song alongside his contemporary Robert Johnson, who notably composed for the plays of Shakespeare, and the Italians Monteverdi, Grandi, Piccinini, Caccini and Merula. There are also instrumental items by Johnson, Ferrabosco, Rosseter and Kabsberger.

“Everything was so perfect, the evening seemed to pass in a flash,” was The Independent’s verdict on the Wigmore Hall recital in December 2008 by soprano Carolyn Sampson and lutenist Matthew Wadsworth. “The soprano Carolyn Sampson is blessed with a lovely voice …and the lutenist Matthew Wadsworth … really is a class apart among exponents of this increasingly popular musical instrument.”

It was during the Baroque period that the female contralto voice challenged the dominance of the male counter-tenor as the preferred vocal sound in the range between tenor and soprano. This recording, which was a “Gramophone Editor’s Choice” when first released, presents some of the finest pieces written for that voice by, amongst others, Vivaldi, Handel, and Carissimi. They are performed by Sara Mingardo and Concerto Italiano under the direction of Rinaldo Alessandrini.