La Compagnia del Madrigale Rossana Bertini, soprano [rb] Francesca Cassinari, soprano [fc] Elena Carzaniga, alto [ec] Giuseppe Maletto, tenor [gm] Raffaele Giordani, tenor [rg] Daniele Carnovich, bass [dc] with (track 14 ): Paolo Borgonovo, tenor [pb] Marco Ricagno, bass [mr] 959 Recorded in the Chiesa della BV Maria del Monte Carmelo al Colletto, Roletto (Italy), on 1-6 September 2010 ( tracks 1-21) and 8 February 2011 ( track 22 ) Engineered by Davide Ficco | Edited by Giuseppe Maletto | Produced by La Compagnia del Madrigale Executive producer & editorial director: Carlos Céster | Editorial assistant: María Díaz Design: Valentín Iglesias (oficinatresminutos.com) | Photographs: Simone Bartoli Translations: Mark Wiggins ( eng ), Pierre Élie Mamou ( fra ), Susanne Lowien ( deu ) © 2013 note 1 music gmbh Ringraziamo D. Lorenzo Rivoiro per la cortese ospitalità. Luca Marenzio ⁽c. - ⁾ Primo Libro di Madrigali a cinque voci , Liquide perle Amor [rb, fc, ec, gm, dc] 1:55 Ohimè, dov’è il mio ben [rb, ec, gm, rg, dc] 3:00 Spuntavan già [rb, fc, gm, rg, dc] 4:09 Quando i vostri begl’occhi [fc, ec, gm, rg, dc] 2:33 Tirsi morir volea [rb, ec, gm, rg, dc] 6:29 Dolorosi martir [rb, ec, gm, rg, dc] 4:48 Che fa oggi il mio sole [rb, fc, ec, rg, dc] 1:43 Lasso ch’io ardo [fc, ec, gm, rg, dc] 2:37 Venuta era Madonna [rb, ec, gm, rg, dc] 5:02 Madonna mia gentil [fc, ec, gm, rg, dc] 2:05 Cantava la più vaga pastorella [rb, fc, gm, rg, dc] 2:37 Questa di verd’erbette [rb, fc, ec, gm, dc] 2:10 Partirò dunque [rb, fc, ec, rg, dc] 2:50 O tu che fra le selve [rb, ec, gm, dc - fc, pb, rg, mr] 4:29 from: Dolci affetti (1582 ) In quel ben nato [fc, ec, gm, rg, dc] 3:39 Sestina [rb, fc, gm, rg, dc] : Mentre ti fui sì grato (i - Giovanni Maria Nanino) 1:54 Mentre ti fui sì cara (ii - Giovanni Battista Moscaglia) 1:54 Or pien d’altro desio (iii - Luca Marenzio) 2:36 Or un laccio, un ardore (iv - Giovanni de Macque) 2:45 Lasso dunque, che fia (v - Francesco Soriano) 2:07 Benché senza mentire (vi - Annibale Zoilo) 2:27 from: Primo fiore della ghirlanda musicale (1577 ) Donna bella e crudel [rb, fc, gm, rg, dc] 3:40 The frontispiece of Luca Marenzio’s ‘Primo Libro di Madrigaali a cinque voci’, published by Angelo Gardano in Venice in 1580. 4 5 t the time when his Primo Libro di Madrigali a cinque form of employment close by to the owner of that sumptuous his court retinue, both ecclesiastics and lay members. Wearing Rome was the city of a hundred palaces and of the most voci was being published in Venice in 1580 , Luca dwelling: the cardinal Luigi d’Este, brother of Alfonso II d’Este, a red hat, a white cassock and a hood of red velvet, the pontiff diverse “nations”, where one would find communities of the A Marenzio was regarded as a rising talent in the Duke of Ferrara, and grandson – on his mother’s side – of rode on a white palfrey, itself decked out in red velvet, fringed Spanish, the French, the Portuguese, the Flemings, the Germans Italian musical firmament. Aged then around 26 , he was pos - Louis XII of France (who had died in 1512 ). And it was to this and trimmed with gold. Even being close to eighty years of age, and the Polish, as well as, naturally, representatives from the sessed, by all accounts, of a very sweet voice, and he probably generous prelate – who was recklessly accumulating debts – the pope did without an equerry. Every fifteen steps he would largest cities in Italy. A perfect place then for a musician, and also played the lute and other instruments. He had previously that Marenzio dedicated his Primo Libro di Madrigali a cinque voci , give his blessing; after him would walk three cardinals, followed an ideal springboard for Luca Marenzio who in the 1580 s and worked for the Duke of Mantua, Guglielmo Gonzaga, and for the sweet first fruits of an ambitious beginner. by a hundred fully-armed men-at-arms, lances held at thigh. 1590 s – thus even before Monteverdi and Gesualdo – was going the cardinal of Trent, Cristoforo Madruzzo, before passing During the course of solemn masses celebrated in St Peter’s, to become, throughout the whole of Europe, the prince of the into the service of Cardinal Luigi d’Este, his influential patron 959 the pope, the cardinals and the other church dignitaries would Italian madrigal. in the Eternal City, Rome. Marenzio hailed from Coccaglio, be sat, heads covered, for almost the entirety of the service, con - a small village near Brescia in an area then subjected to the Rome, in 1580 , was a great city, awash with prelates and other versing with each other while giving the impression that such 959 rule of the Venetian Republic. In the northern Italy of this churchmen, filled with people each one richer than the last, religious ceremonies were more ceremonial occasions than those period, a significant section of the local aristocracy was moving around in carriages or on horseback... In that period, for devotion. Rome was, on the other hand, also famous for its Marenzio’s debut published collection appears to be closely especially interested in poetry, music, painting and the sciences. only Paris could offer a similar sense of coming and going on courtesans who were practised in the art of covering and uncov - linked to the worldly atmosphere of the feasting and festivities An important network of intellectual societies – the academies its streets. The palaces owned by the nobility and cardinals alike ering their charms with a slick art behind their windows. which were celebrated in these dwelling places in Rome. At – took to promoting the spread of ideas and enabling its mem - would be made up of never-ending series of rooms opening up It was with such words, freely paraphrased, that Michel the time, whilst there were certainly cardinals who dedicated bers to keep up to date with the latest developments in each onto other rooms, in such a way that one would need to go de Montaigne described the dolce vita in Rome (in Le Journal du their lives to spirituality, there were also prelates more inclined field. In this environment it did not take long for the talent through three or four of them in order to get to the main salon. Voyage ) that he had become acquainted with during his stay there to diplomacy and to matters of state. And there is no question of the young Luca to be recognized. Whilst there is only a Banquets laid on there not only served up vast quantities of from 1580 to 1581 . The subtle interweaving of splendour and that the dedicatee of the Primo Libro belonged to the second small amount of reliable information available about Marenzio’s roasted fowls, adorned with their original plumage as if they devotion, of Eros and the Counter-Reformation, all of which group: certainly, it is no accident that Luigi d’Este, thanks to apprenticeship, he appears to have carried out his studies in were still living, but also whole capons baked in glass jars, hares are clearly discernible in the French philosopher’s writing, help his family ties, was the protector of the crown of France at Brescia and Mantua, alongside his fellow citizen Giovanni and rabbits, all presented on carefully-folded and presented us to grasp how the Roman madrigal enjoyed a remarkable flow - the Holy See. When in the city, Cardinal d’Este stayed either Contino, a leading maestro di cappella , whose reputation owes as table linen. The noblewomen of Rome cut dignified and ering; this phenomenon, far from being marginal in the city’s at Monte Giordano (today the Palazzo Taverna) or at his res - much to his association with Cardinal Madruzzo as it does charming appearances, they sported meticulously-prepared coif - musical history, ran essentially parallel with the contemporary idence in Monte Cavallo (which, over the centuries was to with the Gonzagas. The young Marenzio was probably also in fures, dressed in the richest of clothes, and covered themselves blossoming of painting at the end of the 16 th century, not just become the Palazzo del Quirinale, the current residence of contact with Giaches de Wert and Claudio Merulo. profusely in pearls and precious stones. In their carriages or at in the sacred domain but in the secular as well, exemplified by the President of the Italian Republic). But undoubtedly his A determining factor in Marenzio’s career came when he feasts they would be separated from the gentlemen, but during the beautiful frescoes of Annibale Carracci in the vaulted gallery Eminence’s most renowned building was the villa constructed moved to Rome in 1578 (at the latest). That year saw the unex - the dancing couples were able to mingle together with great of the Palazzo Farnese. One can also understand how a collection in Tivoli by his uncle, the cardinal Ippolito d’Este. Montaigne, pected death of the young musician’s patron, Cardinal Madruzzo, freedom, converse with each other, and move about holding of madrigals dedicated to a cardinal contains one with an erotic like all those who visited this villa, was enchanted by the in the Villa d’Este in Tivoli, following a stroke. Marenzio was hands. In his travels across the city, the pope, Gregory XIII text ( Tirsi morir volea , track 5), where the verb “morire” metaphor - fountains of the park there, with their “spurting with an fortunate in being able immediately to find a new and stable would be preceded on horseback by close to 200 members of ically means “to die of love brought on by sexual pleasure”.