La Compagnia del Madrigale - Si breve e 'l tempo - Madrigals in the Low Countries - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

The new recording project by La Compagnia del Madrigale is dedicated to the Ninth Book of Madrigals (1588) by Giaches de Wert. Wert-Flemish by birth but active for most of his life in Italy at the Gonzaga court in Mantua-embodies the figure of the great composer capable of transcending fashion to create art that, as they used to say in the sixteenth century, is destined to remain durable and eternal. The Ninth Book, published during a period of personal tribulation and heartbreak over his thwarted love for the poetess Tarquinia Molza, marks a pinnacle of artifice and pathos. Here, Wert explores the heights of Petrarch's Canzoniere, alongside verses by Torquato Tasso, Jacopo Sannazaro, and Battista Guarini, alternating luminous courtly homages with an innovative lyricism that foreshadows the style of Carlo Gesualdo. La Compagnia del Madrigale - one of the world-leading ensembles in the performance of Monteverdi, Marenzio, Gesualdo, and Rore - delivers these pages with absolute artistic excellence. Album Tracks 1. Wert Or Si Rallegri Il Cielo 2. Wert L'anima Mia Ferita 3. Wert Vago Augelletto Che Cantando Vai 4. Wert Valle Che De' Lamenti Miei Se' Piena 5. Wert Quel Rossignol, Che SÍ Soave Piagne 6. Wert Ecco Che Un'altra Volta, O Piagge Apriche 7. Wert Mia Benigna Fortuna E'l Viver Lieto 8. Wert Sovra Un Bel Cristallino E Puro Rivo 9. Wert Un Bacio Solo À Tante Pene, Hai, Cruda? 10. Wert Di Morte Già Sentìa Il Fero Ultimo Dardo 11. Wert Mesola, Il Po Da Lato, E'l Mar a Fronte 12. Wert O Come Vaneggiate, Donna 13. Wert Ha Ninfe Adorne, E Belle 14. Wert Padre Del Ciel, Dopo I Perduti Giorni

The debut full length album from Pittsburgh's Ritual Mass is more than a collection of songs, it's a series of calculated assaults on the virtue of the holy. Evolving beyond earlier EP and demo releases, Cascading Misery encapsulates the bludgeoning infliction of pain and the slow peel of skin by flame, rife with both sonic chaos and extinguished hope.From the outset of album opener InchObsidian MirrorInch the atmosphere is oppressive, thick with a suffocating malaise. There is a sense of something ceremonial at work but not in a way that seeks communion. Rather it's ordeal as sacrament. Riffs strangle and churn into convulsive submission, oscillating from slow agony to psychotic break, over which a guttural lament so savage it freezes the blood is wrenched through dungeon stone. Each track unfolds like time spent in isolation, bound by chains, the mind slowly unraveling and surrounded by memories of torment both real and imagined.By the time the epic fourteen-minute album closer 'Disquiet' dissipates into a mass of formless static, Ritual Mass have dragged you into a world where suffering is not an end but a condition of existence. Cascading Misery is music for the dissolution of hope, the terror of being, and the long march toward death. Album Tracks 1. Obsidian Mirror 2. Immeasurable Hell 3. Looming Shapeless Entity 4. Cascading Misery 5. Frozen Marrow 6. Disquiet

La Compagnia del Madrigale releases another imaginative album on Glossa, turning to a late composition by Orazio Vecchi, Le veglie di Siena from 1604. This entertainment comes in two parts the first embracing InchpleasantInch mimicry of the manners of speaking of Italians and foreigners and a high-spirited madrigal group, InchLa caccia d'AmoreInch; part two is more InchseriousInch in tone, but with a kaleidoscope of musical styles and emotional expressions representing InchumoriInch or moods. A vivid sense of theatricality from the vocal sextet is complemented by a modern master of the commedia dell'arte, the actor and director Antonio Fava. Nuances, attention to words, compelling humour and ribaldry were all revelled in by Italian patrician society of the time and Vecchi was held in high esteem, including by contemporary composers, achieving a fame which was cut short by his death at 54, with Le veglie di Siena being regarded as Vecchi's Inchspiritual testamentInch. Marco Bizzarini's compelling essay places this madrigal comedy in the contexts both of it's time and of recent scholarship, whilst making plain the rumbustious fun there is to be had in the company of madrigalists as fine as can be heard on this new double-disc set.