Monteverdi: Madrigals

“The atmosphere is electric. Villazón is pouring out Monteverdi’s beautiful lines of remorseful agony with spell-binding force. It’s his first foray into early music, but he tosses off the tricky idioms – the delicate, falling sospiri between notes, the hellishly difficult bouncing-ball repetitions on one note, the flexible tempi – as if he’s been doing them all his life. And what’s more, he invests them with thrilling urgency and passion. Even Haïm, directly form the harpsichord, seems amazed.” Gramophone