Monteverdi: Pianto della Madonna 'Iam moriar, mi fili' (sopra il Lamento dell'Arianna), SV 288

The last of three volumes of The Sixteen’s series devoted to Monteverdi’s Selva morale e spirituale.

Without doubt, Monteverdi was the greatest of the early baroque European composers. He revolutionised the music of the theatre and the church by his dramatic and imaginative use of voices and instruments and by his daring harmonies and rhythms. Next to his Vespers of 1610, the Selva morale e spirituale of 1641 is his most significant and virtuosic collection of sacred music. Monteverdi stretches every singer’s versatility to the limit in this demanding but exhilarating music. Included on this final volume are the eight part Magnificat (Primo) - one of the most impressive of all Monteverdi’s settings with the added richness of doubling strings; the old style Credidi and Memento featuring the full choir; and the exquisitely beautiful soprano solo, Pianto della Madonna ‘Iam moriar, mi fili’, performed here by Grace Davidson.

This set gathers 2 albums released in 1990 and 1994.

Each of them definitely established Montserrat Figueras as one of the best performers of Claudio Monteverdi’s vocal music. At this time, she developed an innovative style of interpretation, characterised by great fidelity to historical sources, combined with an extraordinary creative and expressive power, that has exerted a decisive influence on the whole historical music movement.

Vocal music before 1800 required a new technical and stylistic approach capable of restoring to the beauty and emotion of the voice, that most human of all forms of expression, the necessary balance between singing and declamation, with an emphasis on the poetic and spiritual dimension of the text.

She is accompanied by Jordi Savall on CD1 and Ton Koopman on CD2.

Rare recordings of two settings of Mary’s passionate Easter lament. For their second L’Oiseau Lyre disc, Il Giardino Armonico, again under their director Giovanni Antonini, are joined by celebrated mezzo-soprano Bernarda Fink, for a project exploring the Passion of Christ as seen through the eyes of the Virgin Mary. The two central works are both vocal settings of the Virgin’s lament. The first, Il Pianto di Maria, was long thought to be by Handel – a clear reflection of its outstanding musical quality. It was not until the 1990s that handwriting experts established it as the work of the little-known Venetian composer Giovanni Ferrandini. The other key vocal work will be the World Premiere recording of an aria by Francesco Conti – composer to the Habsburg court of Vienna - in which the martyr Lorenzo, threatened with being burnt alive, refuses to deny his Christian faith. This deeply touching aria features a rarely heard ancestor of the modern clarinet, frequently used in ‘pathetic’ arias of the period – the soprano chalumeau. Short instrumental pieces form a musical setting around these vocal jewels, and include music by Caldara, Marini, Pisendel, Weiss and Vivaldi.

From Dido's desperate love to Mary's poignant fervour...

This sumptuous album, combines the sacred and profane, the cult of the Virgin Mary as opposed to Dido, Queen of Carthage, almost exclusively by 17th century Venetian Baroque composers.

It includes the iconic aria [Dido's Lament], Cavalli's Lamento di Didone and Scarlatti's Didone delirante, long thought lost, and a previously unrecorded cantata by Faggioli.

The vocally distinctive, theatrically brilliant French mezzo Stephanie d'Oustrac is accompanied by Ens Amarillis and Violaine Cochard.

Mary has held a central position in Christianity since the dawn of the church. As early as 250 AD, prayers were being written to her, and her position was solidified by the Council of Ephesus in 431 AD as Theotokus, or “Birthgiver of God.”

In the first half of the 17th century especially, composers preferred the often much more elaborate hymns of praise to Mary, either cobbled together from various Biblical passages, or freely written based upon either Biblical events or Church dogma.

All of these pieces were recorded using editions of original manuscripts.