Madrigali Libro

The sixteenth-century madrigal, a deceptively simple, whimsical poetic form of no fixed structure, had an elusive quality that was to prove inspirational to generations of musicians; madrigal settings came to form the core of many composers’ outputs and quickly evolved a musical identity independent of their poetic origins.

"Il Primo libro di Madrigali", Venedig, 1611, at Gardano

In a memorial from 1651, Heinrich Schutz gave an account of his life, retracting the formative years in Venice from 1609 when he began to "study music with the utmost diligence. With the help of God I attained such fame that after three years (one year before I left Italy for home) I had my first little piece of music printed in Italian, earning extravagant praise from the most distinguished musicians in Venice…"

Girolamo Frescobaldi - Secular Madrigals - Modo Antiquo/Bettina Hoffmann
Frescobaldi Edition, Vol. 6: Il Primo Libro dei Madrigali a cinque voci (1608)
Classical | 1 CD | EAC | FLAC, CUE, LOG | Scans | 205 MB | RS
Recorded: 13-15/4 2008, Oratorio San Francesco Poverino, Florence
Released: 2009 | Label: Brilliant 93793 | TT: 41:56
Modo Antiquo, dir. Bettina Hoffmann

Volume 6 of this path-breaking series, the first to record every extant work by Girolamo Frescobaldi, focuses on the secular madrigals. These works - he wrote one book, and evidently hoped to write more - are no less innovatory than the keyboard works that so impressed and influenced J. S. Bach. […] The nineteen madrigals with which Frescobaldi introduced himself have an admirable clarity of formal design that gives each line its due weight in terms of duration and emotion, and a transparent counterpoint that favours delicacy over density as a stylistic means, homophonic and polyphonic sections being cleverly alternated. It is pleasing to see the respect that Frescobaldi pays to the texts: the words are set to graceful melodic phrases, and never obscured by excessive counterpoint, but interpreted literally with immediate attention to meaning. (brilliantclassics.com)