Classics Reconsidered: Monteverdi’s Fourth Book of Madrigals by Concerto Italiano
Monteverdi Il quarto libro de madrigali
Concerto Italiano / Rinaldo Alessandrini
Opus 111 (now Naïve)
[…]
Fabrice Fitch Why is this a classic? You could start with the same reviewer’s take on Concerto Italiano’s first recording of the Sixth Book for Arcana, issued a few months before (7/93). The difference in evaluation is striking: the reservations about the approach, the pointing at technical glitches in the earlier recording, fall away. Did the change of label have something to do with it, I wonder?
Edward Breen You’re right, their move towards a more emotive style is obvious now I listen back to their releases in order, but I don’t have any insight as to how this came about. Could it really have been simply a new label? Happily, I feel the success of this Fourth Book is due to a change that resulted in the kinds of performance that were absolutely what was needed at that moment. It was zeitgeisty – though I detest that adjective. Seven years earlier, Anthony Rooley and The Consort of Musicke had given us sumptuous accounts of the same works (5/86), which I still consider to combine the sound of Renaissance polyphony with the taste of the Italian language. Although Rooley’s recording undoubtedly opened new portals to linguistic expression, I feel that in the ’90s, by which time the early music CD market was rich with the sparkling clarity of English singers, Alessandrini played a brave move to work against that grain. As Iain Fenlon implies in his review, it is not that the Italian singers are not singing beautifully, it was just such a shock that they didn’t sound like everyone else did at the time. This is a recording sure of its own personality. When I first heard it I realised I’d been subconsciously longing for something this bold and, like Fenlon, I just loved having both Rooley’s and Alessandrini’s albums in my collection.
[…]
for the full text of this feature please visit Gramophone.co.uk (July 2026)
Fabrice Fitch Why is this a classic? You could start with the same reviewer’s take on Concerto Italiano’s first recording of the Sixth Book for Arcana, issued a few months before (7/93). The difference in evaluation is striking: the reservations about the approach, the pointing at technical glitches in the earlier recording, fall away. Did the change of label have something to do with it, I wonder?
Edward Breen You’re right, their move towards a more emotive style is obvious now I listen back to their releases in order, but I don’t have any insight as to how this came about. Could it really have been simply a new label? Happily, I feel the success of this Fourth Book is due to a change that resulted in the kinds of performance that were absolutely what was needed at that moment. It was zeitgeisty – though I detest that adjective. Seven years earlier, Anthony Rooley and The Consort of Musicke had given us sumptuous accounts of the same works (5/86), which I still consider to combine the sound of Renaissance polyphony with the taste of the Italian language. Although Rooley’s recording undoubtedly opened new portals to linguistic expression, I feel that in the ’90s, by which time the early music CD market was rich with the sparkling clarity of English singers, Alessandrini played a brave move to work against that grain. As Iain Fenlon implies in his review, it is not that the Italian singers are not singing beautifully, it was just such a shock that they didn’t sound like everyone else did at the time. This is a recording sure of its own personality. When I first heard it I realised I’d been subconsciously longing for something this bold and, like Fenlon, I just loved having both Rooley’s and Alessandrini’s albums in my collection.
[…]
for the full text of this feature please visit Gramophone.co.uk (July 2026)
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