II sesto libro de madrigali
RossoPorpora/Testolin
Arcana (A580 74' T/t)
With so many fine accounts of Monteverdi‘s Madrigals, a new release is becoming something of a right-of-passage for early music ensembles, even so it is hard to believe that with such an assured reading this is only RossoPorpora’s second album. But what a place to start! Book six is, for me at least, the composer’s wistful backward glance, one last stroll through his museum of Mantuan memories where figures like Catarina Martinelli – so very nearly the first Arianna – are preserved. Walter Testolin appears to feel the same way, from both his program note and the monumental opening Lamento d’Arianna, he directs performances imbued with persistent melancholy. That said it is clear throughout in diction and in tone, but overcast with a sense of brooding, never quite as light-footed and unpredictable as La Venexiana (1982). I could use here, and elsewhere, a touch more spontaneity.
[...]
In his hands, this last book of completely polyphonic madrigals has a dream-like quality that matches many of their pastoral overtones.
To read the full text of this review please visit Gramophone.co.uk (October 2025)
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