FIRE & PASSION

Chiseling out artful combinations between text and tone has probably never been as innovative and successful as during the 15th-17th centuries of the Renaissance. The poems' linguistic  ingenuity gave poetry new dimensions and composers blended their old and new skills in intricate melodic art. The madrigal became the unsurpassed combination!

No vocal ensemble is unaffected after an encounter with a classical madrigal – it challenges with its demands on phrasing, text understanding, dynamics and listening. That the tempi constantly moves in step with the text makes the whole thing even more exciting.

The madrigal is by no means a dead musical form. Ever since the Renaissance, it has had its given place in the tonal language of other eras - but always retained its close word-tone contact.
With our concert today, we want to put the classical madrigal in relief for later times - Luca Marenzio, Giovanni Gabrieli, Claudio Monteverdi and Barbara Strozzi will meet madrigals by Hendrik Andriessen, Arnold Mendelssohn (!) and Morten Lauridsen.

With us we have Karl Nyhlin on theorb and our ciceron is Maja Verner Carlsson.

Tonight's program:
 

MORTEN LAURIDSEN Ov'è, Lass, Il Bel Viso?

From "Six "Fire Songs" on Italian Renaissance Poems" No. 1

 

LUCA MARENZIO Zefiro towers

text: Francesco Petrarca Canzoniere CCCX

 

HENDRIK ANDRIESSEN 1892-1981: Omaggio a Marenzio (1965)

text: Fazio degli Uberti 1305 (?)- 1367

 

GIOVANNI GABRIELI Dormiva dolcemente

text: Torquato Tasso

 

CLAUDIO MONTEVERDI Sestina

Lagrime d'Amante al Sepolcro dell Amata - The lover's tears at the beloved

tomb Text: Scipione Agnelli

 

ARNOLD MENDELSSOHN Three Madrigals

nach Words aus Goethe's "Leiden des jungen Werther"

 

BARBARA STROZZI Dialogo in partenza

text: Giulio Strozzi

 

MORTEN LAURIDSEN See per havervi, oimé

From Six "Fire Songs" on Italian Renaissance Poems No. 6. (1987)

VWELCOME!

Mikaeli Chamber Choir
Anders Eby, conductor