Monteverdi anyone? 19-23 May

[doversoul1]

This week Donald McLeod explores the life and times of Monteverdi in his Venice years, when he became the most famous composer in Italy, if not the world.
[…]http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b043pmd0

I shall follow the programme by listening to the repeat when (hopefully) the playlist is publishes. Not knowing what or/and whom I am listening to is too frustrating.

[Roehre]

This week Donald McLeod explores the life and times of Monteverdi in his Venice years, when he became the most famous composer in Italy, if not the world.
[…]http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b043pmd0

I shall follow the programme by listening to the repeat when (hopefully) the playlist is publishes. Not knowing what or/and whom I am listening to is too frustrating.

I'm looking forward to this CotW (as I did to Grieg and Gal last week and the week before that), but with R3 in general:
no playlist > no live listening. iPlayer is patient. Time is too precious to be wasted on things i don't like to listen too, let alone the drivel and the self-centred nonsense of "star"-presenters at other programmes.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Not knowing what or/and whom I am listening to is too frustrating.

I wonder why they do this. It makes no sense.

[Beef Oven!]

This week Donald McLeod explores the life and times of Monteverdi in his Venice years, when he became the most famous composer in Italy, if not the world.
[…]http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b043pmd0

I shall follow the programme by listening to the repeat when (hopefully) the playlist is publishes. Not knowing what or/and whom I am listening to is too frustrating.

Yes, it's frustrating, but right now I have the COTW webpage open, and it tells you what is currently playing. When it finishes, recording details also appear.

So for example, I can see that at the moment, we are listening to 'Gloria in excelsis Deo, for 7 voices' etc.

[Roehre]

Yes, it's frustrating, but right now I have the COTW webpage open, and it tells you what is currently playing. When it finishes, recording details also appear.

So for example, I can see that at the moment, we are listening to 'Gloria in excelsis Deo, for 7 voices' etc.

But when when listening, I am most definitely not behind a computer screen

[Sir Velo]

[I]This week Donald McLeod explores the life and times of Monteverdi in his Venice years, when he became the most famous composer in Italy, if not the world.

Another distressing example of how the BBC equates quality with celebrity. "Fame" as it was defined at the time was about repute, and not about how widely known one was.

[doversoul1]

Yes, it's frustrating, but right now I have the COTW webpage open, and it tells you what is currently playing. When it finishes, recording details also appear.

So for example, I can see that at the moment, we are listening to 'Gloria in excelsis Deo, for 7 voices' etc.

It is a big improvement from having to wait for a day or two but I would really like to know how the five programmes are structured. It’s rather like doing homework before attending a lecture.

That aside, I hope you are enjoying the music. I found this which may be of interest to you (to me very much)

A translation of Monteverdi’s Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda

http://theoryofmusic.wordpress.com/2008/02/04/a-translation-of-il-combattimento-di-tancredi-e-clorinda-by-monteverdi/

[Beef Oven!]

It is a big improvement from having to wait for a day or two but I would really like to know how the five programmes are structured. It’s rather like doing homework before attending a lecture.

That aside, I hope you are enjoying the music. I found this which may be of interest to you (to me very much)

A translation of Monteverdi’s Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda
http://theoryofmusic.wordpress.com/2...by-monteverdi/

Thank you very much doversoul, this is most interesting. Especially as I ordered 3 Monteverdi CDs from Amazon this afternoon on the strength of today's COTW - one of them was Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda on Naxos (the version played in today's programme).

I'm really enjoying EM these days. Never really got on with it before. A super-budget Harmonia Mundi CPE Bach 10 CD set, bought a few weeks back has given me the bug!

[Serial_Apologist]

Thank you very much doversoul, this is most interesting. Especially as I ordered 3 Monteverdi CDs from Amazon this afternoon on the strength of today's COTW - one of them was Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda on Naxos (the version played in today's programme).

I'm really enjoying EM these days. Never really got on with it before. A super-budget Harmonia Mundi CPE Bach 10 CD set, bought a few weeks back has given me the bug!

I hardly recognised lengthy sections of Tancredi as performed on yesterday's programme. Somehow they managed to turn recitatives into arias.

[Beef Oven!]

I hardly recognised lengthy sections of Tancredi as performed on yesterday's programme. Somehow they managed to turn recitatives into arias.

Is that a good thing, or a bad thing, in your view?

For the record, to me it's all new, so I'll happily take it with arias.

[Roehre]

Is that a good thing, or a bad thing, in your view?

For the record, to me it's all new, so I'll happily take it with arias.

It's a matter of interpretation.
I peronally do like both approaches.

[Serial_Apologist]

It's a matter of interpretation.
I peronally do like both approaches.

What a remarkable composer Monteverdi was! In many ways he sounds 100 years ahead of his time, anticipating many of the cliches of Handel for instance. One instrumental passage from an opera, played just now, superficially anticipated 1970s jazz fusion in using varied superimposed time signatures and a repeated harp figure in a low register in the manner similar to that employed by electric bassists like Jaco Pastorius.

[jean]

Right at the end of the last programme, we had Zefiro torna, in a version I had never heard before:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6tJWY2Vaz4&feature=kp

Shortly afterwards, I watched the relay of the Duchess of Malfi on the iPlayer, in the course of which the Duchess and her lover attempted it - and ruined it by singing all statements of the opening theme as three descending tones. The result was unutterably banal. Imagine it if you can; I never thought one note could make such a difference.

[Serial_Apologist]

Shortly afterwards, I watched the relay of the Duchess of Malfi on the iPlayer, in the course of which the Duchess and her lover attempted it - and ruined it by singing all statements of the opening theme as three descending tones. The result was unutterably banal. Imagine it if you can; I never thought one note could make such a difference.

Two deaf mice...