Lucrezia Borgia’s Daughter

‘Lucrezia Borgia’s Daughter’ 
‘Princess, Nun and Musician: Motets from a 16th Century Convent’ 
attrib d’Este Musica quinque vocum motteta materna lingua vocata Musica Secreta; 
Celestial Sirens / Laurie Stras, Deborah Roberts Obsidian F CD717 (72’ • DDD • T/t)

[...] 

The progressive nature of these motets will surprise and delight lovers of 16th-century music. Written for equal voices, they are contained within a twooctave compass promoting a rich, sonorous texture. Such textures are beautiful and supple in the hands of Musica Secreta, whose singers include leading voices of Renaissance music: Deborah Roberts, Sally Dunkley and Caroline Trevor. They are cushioned by the warm embrace of an organ and underpinned with a sinewy viol to provide a firm polyphonic meld. 
[...]

To read the full text of this article please visit www.gramophone.co.uk (May 2007)

MUSICAL CONNECTIONS: Ten early madrigals

Ten early madrigals

Madrigals ancient and modern launch a pair of parallel century-hopping musical journeys.

Les Arts Florissants' 2016 Gramophone award-winning Monteverdi album inspired our two journeys.

A journey through Italian madrigals reveals a slow transformation from introverted, reflective styles to declamatory, quasi-operatic scenes. The intimate ‘barbershop’ sound of The King’s Singers suits early works particularly well, especially Arcadelt’s subtly erotic setting of a swan song. This sense of intimacy is transformed by the young Monteverdi’s almost claustrophobic Baci soave, e cari in which Les Arts Florissants bristle with energy responding to the delicate combination of text and dissonance. [...]

• Arcadelt Il bianco e dolce cigno King’s Singers Warner 
• Monteverdi Baci soave, e cari Les Arts Florissants LAF 
• Marenzio Solo e pensoso Huelgas Ens Sony Classical 
• Gesualdo Io parto… Compagnie del Madrigale Glossa 
• Monteverdi Sfogava co… Voces Suaves Ambronay 
• Monteverdi Cruda Amarilli Concerto Italiano Naïve 
• Monteverdi Lamento d’Arianna Consort of Musicke Deutsche Harmonia Mundi 
• Monteverdi Lettera amorosa Figueras Alia Vox 
• Monteverdi Lettera amorosa Berberian Wergo 
• Monteverdi Il combattimento Villazón Erato

To read the full text of this article please visit www.gramophone.co.uk (May 2007)

Book review: Well-tempered woodwinds

Well-tempered woodwinds: Friedrich von Huene and the making of early music in a new world Geoffrey Burgess
(Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2015), $45
Reviewed by Edward Breen in Early Music (2016) 44 (4): 647-649. Published:10 February 2017

For the early music movement this is a decade infused with self-reflection. It is over 40 years since the boom of the early 1970s, and many pioneering performers are celebrating long careers that started in small counter-cultural settings and have led to mainstream concert success and global record sales. So it is only natural that we might be interested in how we got where we are, as well as asking where we are going next.

As a contribution to early music nostalgia, this book is much more than a simple biography of Friedrich von Huene, one of the world’s leading historical woodwind-makers; it also investigates his research and influence upon performance. Through this prism it offers both a cultural history of the early music movement in America and its connections to European practice, and a history of modern...

To read the full text of this review, please visit Early Music. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1093/em/caw101