Credits:

Les Arts Florissants & William Christie

Description:

Schtz’s graduation work and great masterpiece, a collection of madrigales in Italian, the first volume of Schtz’s collection of madrigales with Italian texts (the second and subsequent volumes do not exist). It was published in 1611. It was a sort of “graduation work” after two years of training under Gabrieli in Italy. It was written for two choirs, six years after the fifth volume of Monteverdi’s madrigale cycle, and is said to be the culmination of the polyphonic madrigale tradition that has continued since the 16th century. It has been preserved for the world as a wonderful masterpiece, with a truly wonderful fusion of text and music. The nuances of the Italian language and the emotions of the words are beautifully expressed in the music. Paul Agnew’s precise conducting beautifully echoes the feelings that the young Schtz put into the work.