Claudio Monteverdi: 15-19 May

[doversoul1]

To mark 450 years since the composer's birth, Donald Macleod traces Claudio Monteverdi's remarkable rise from relatively humble origins in Cremona (he was the son of a barber-surgeon) to his subsequent career as instrumentalist and composer at the court of Vincenzo Gonzaga at Mantua, and his later promotion to the role of Director of Music at the Basilica of St Mark's in Venice.
[…]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08pwz2k

[Serial_Apologist]

Wonderful music! It took me a while to get into Monteverdi, when I first heard him 30 years ago - it seemed mostly recitative and little of the melody I'd expected, and I think I probably launched off on the wrong works.

[vinteuil]

.

... Monteverdi one of the first musical experiences that absolutely claimed me. Thanks to the wonders of google I can now date precisely the moment - at the Guildhall in Bath :

25 November 1967

C. Monteverdi: Chiome d'oro
B. Britten: Choral Dances (Gloriana)
C. Monteverdi: Beatus vir ; Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda
H. Purcell: Masque (Diocletian)

Soloists: Jill Fowles, Cecilia Howard-Kyan, Mollie Petrie, Enid Corcoran, Jantina Noorman, William Fudge, Anthony Corfe, Michael Ockendon, Beresford King-Smith

I was fifteen. It was the thrill of the harpsichord in il Combattimento [Edward Malins, on what I now know was a totally inappropriate Kirckman...] as much as anything - it was a Pauline conversion, and the excitement perdures fifty years on..




.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Wonderful music! It took me a while to get into Monteverdi, when I first heard him 30 years ago - it seemed mostly recitative and little of the melody I'd expected, and I think I probably launched off on the wrong works.

I had practically the same experience - Il Combattimento was a set work for my second year at university in 1980; the lecturer seemed to spend most of the time talking about Tasso and I cannot remember anything he said about the Music, and I don't recall ever hearing it during that time, either! Skip forward twelve years for my Damascene moment, with the Scholars Baroque Ensemble's recording of the Vespers (still a favourite of mine), then a second-hand CD of Christie & the Flourishers' Selva Morale, then the Medlam Orfeo ... no looking back in the quarter-century since

Without "twigging" that this was the 450th anniversary year, I bought the La Venexiana boxed set of the Madrigals (special offer) - and it's been a total joy since February.

Delighted to hear this week's programmes (particularly after ... well; another disappointing encounter with Tasso!) - and, indeed, there hasn't been a duff programme in the current run of anniversary celebrations.

[doversoul1]

This is not the ‘correct’ but seems to be the best place.

An hour of Monteverdi’s madrigals on (of all places) The Choir performed by

La Venexiana, I Fagiolini, Les Arts Florissants (Paul Agnew), Concerto Italiano, The English Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble, and The 24, University Of York.

Sara Mohr-Pietsch asks Robert Hollingworth many interesting questions.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08pwsp5

[gurnemanz]

Just listening to one of my favourite Monteverdi discs. This one. Lamento di Arianana coming up tomorrow on CotW. The irresistible Emanuela Galli.

[MickyD]

Again, it was Walter Carlos who I have to thank for discovering Monteverdi. His brief track, the opening 'Domine ad ajuvandum' from the 1610 Vespers blew me away when I heard it at the tender age of 16.

[doversoul1]

This CoW really has been glorious. The highlight for me was Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda on Thursday’s programme. I though Andrew King was tremendous as the narrator. Emma Kirkby sounded somewhat quaint but superb all the same. I also found it very interesting to hear The Sixteen’s Vespers on Wednesday after Monday’s performance by Vox Luminis. And I enjoyed Paul Agnew and Les Arts Florissants’s quite animated singing of Madrigals.

What a feast it has been!!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

This CoW really has been glorious. ... What a feast it has been!!

I agree completely.

[BBMmk2]

Certainly has. I have listened top everyone of them and been very interesting.