Pristine Classical
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Pristine Classical Recorded Music
PACO011: Oeuvres de Monteverdi
Austrian

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Nadia Boulanger Ensemble
Recorded in 1937, issued as 5HMV 78s DB.5038-42
Matrix Numbers:2LA: 1525-6, 1520-21, 1519, 1532, 1535-4, 1518, 1533
Takes: All first except 2LA1518 ("Amor") - 3rd take
Download ID: 194451, 390707
Duration: 41'25"

  • Hor ch'el e la terra (6 part madrigal)
  • Lamento d'Arianna: Lasciatemi morire (5 part madrigal)
  • Zefiro torna, 'ciacona' (Chaconne for two tenors)
  • Ardo e scoprir (Duet for two tenors)
  • Ohimè, dovè il mio ben? (Romanesca for two tenors)
  • Chiome d'oro, bel thesoro (Canzonetta for two tenors)
  • Il ballo delle ingrate (Ballet extracts for solo voices & strings)
  • Non havea Febo ancora (lamento della ninfa) (4 parrt madrigal)
  • Ecco mormorar l'onde (5 part madrigal)
PACO011: Oeuvres de Monteverdi

Play Zefiro turna, 'ciacona'

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...one of the purest treasures the
gramophone has given us...

The Record Guide, 1952

 

Nadia Boulanger
(1887-1979)

This collection of various madrigals and other works by Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643) has often been regarded as one of the most important recordings of the twentieth century. Made in 1937 under the direction of Nadia Boulanger (who accompanies some of the pieces at the piano), it re-introduced to the world a composer who had been virtually forgotten for centuries; yet he was the musical genius who had practically invented opera with Orfeo in 1607, and whose marrying of musical techniques old and new set the stage for the entire Baroque movement.

Yet there is more to this recording than simply the merit of discovering lost musicians. In these ten 78rpm sides Boulanger conjured up musical perfection such that it has rarely been unavailable since, on a variety of transfers, good, bad and indifferent.

I am grateful to a long-time customer of Pristine Audio for suggesting this set. I had not listened to a note by Monteverdi since my school music O-level examinations in 1985, when I decided that his Beatus Vir would be the one work I had no intention of learning about, such was my lack of engagement with it at the time. (In the light of this recording perhaps I've achieved the maturity lacking all those years ago for that piece!)

Writing in Fanfare magazine in 2003, Raymond Tuttle states: "While it is not difficult to find versions that surpass these on technical grounds—I mean both the production of notes and the electronic reproduction of sound—I can’t think of any that are more sincere, more heartfelt. Boulanger guides these works with the bittersweet tenderness of a mother guiding her infant child in his first steps."

He goes on: "Boulanger’s small, handpicked ensemble of singers was a diverse group. There were émigrés from Eastern Europe, a countess, and a tenor who was equally at home in French art song and the music hall. For the most part, these were not “great” singers, but they were dedicated to Boulanger and to the composers that she in turn served. Hearing these musicians, one senses that they were a family united by music.

The age of these recordings probably works in their favor, giving them a magical patina impossible in the clinical digital age. The feeling of exploration, of Sleeping Beauties awakened with a kiss, is moving. Call me a sentimentalist, but there it is."


Find out more:

 
3: Zefiro torna, 'ciacona'
from Scherzi musicali, pub. 1632


About Claudio Monteverdi:

Wikipedia
The Classical Music Pages

Libretti for this collection:
All but two of the librettican be found at the first link - those omitted have individual links

Large collection of Monteverdi libretti
Il Ballo Delle Ingrate
Ardo e scoprir (pdf score)

About Nadia Boulanger:

The Nadia Boulanger Experience
International Boulanger Foundation
"That Woman Down The Hall"

CD covers to print:

 

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CD-writing cuesheet: [What's that?]

Cue Sheet

Download our Full Discography
Printable text listings of all Pristine Audio historic releases
Restoration by Andrew Rose:


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