ALC 1376
67’10
We’re delighted this recording has been re-issued, making available once again our premiere recordings of 19 famous Monteverdi madrigals, sounding revelatory as choral works in sacred guise. Aquilino Coppini, a friend of Monteverdi, was commissioned by the Archbishop of Milan to substitute the secular madrigal texts and publish them “clothed with spiritual words so that [they] be equally commendable to God and to his saints in churches.” The result is a set of glorious motets.
Originally issued in 1997 on ASV Gaudeamus CDGAU 174.
REVIEWS:
“The church has not generally been slow to wrap an acquisitive cope around secular culture when the dividend has provide tempting. And it was in just such a spirit that Cardinal Borremeo of Milan approached Aquilino Coppini with a view to adapting some of Monteverdi’s madrigals for sacred use… The resulting motets were published in three volumes and 19 of them receive their first recording on this enterprising disc from Ex Cathedra… The sumptuous result is convincing, sensitively moulded and alert to the expressive currency of the Monteverdian dissonance…” (Classic CD ****)
“Ex Cathedra here turn another triumph in their unearthing of little-known repertoire, this time exhuming “churchified” versions of some of Monteverdi’s most fleshly madrigals. Known as contrafacta, they replace often erotic texts wutg spiritual ones, here supplied by Monteverdi’s friend Aquilino Coppini, professor of rhetoric at the University of Pavia. Monteverdi’s music breathes such emotional strength that it can stand this shift of emphasis from Earth to Heaven… Director Jeffrey Skidmore, who prepared these editions from original sources discovered in Italy, allows all the music’s emotional richness full rein whilst maintaining discreet control.” (Birmingham Post ***** Classical CD of the Week)
“Moments of heightened emotional intensity … aptly encapsulated the spiritual and musical aesthetic (The Times)