Est 1923

Monteverdi Il Ballo delle ingrate; Lamento d'Arianna

Record and Artist Details

Composer or Director: Claudio Monteverdi

Label: Alfred Deller Collection

Media Format: CD or Download

Media Runtime: 61

Mastering:

ADD

Catalogue Number: 08.5063.71

Tracks:

Composition Artist Credit
(Il) Ballo delle ingrate Claudio Monteverdi, Composer
Alfred Deller, Alto
Alfred Deller, Conductor
Ambrosian Singers
April Cantelo, Soprano
Claudio Monteverdi, Composer
David Ward, Bass
Eileen McLoughlin, Soprano
London Chamber Players
Lamento d'Arianna Claudio Monteverdi, Composer
Alfred Deller, Conductor
Alfred Deller, Conductor
Claudio Monteverdi, Composer
Deller Consort
Maurice Bevan, Baritone
Max Worthley, Tenor
Philip Todd, Tenor
Sally Le Sage, Soprano
Vanguard's Alfred Deller Edition is a welcome sight. This particular CD is one of a select number of notable Monteverdi discs made before the days of Raymond Leppard's free-wheeling revivalist instincts and the wealth of historically-aware performances which now dominate the catalogue. Il ballo is a remarkably atmospheric account despite a plethora of colouristic effects from instrumental forces which, unsurprisingly, wear less well than Deller's delicate graces and inimitable trademark of hovering sweetly above an instrumental consort, numbering here amongst its members Julian Bream, Sir Neville Marriner and Anthony Baines. The instrumental contributions are distinctive and imaginative, despite some pretty hard-driven articulation by today's standards. The vocal performances, though, are remarkably telling by any standards, especially since old 'early music' recordings are seemingly at a distinct disadvantage in the light of extensive reappraisal of performance styles over the last 38 years.
Deller's rendering of Venus (!) is focused and closely recorded (as tended to be the case in capturing his every nuance—his was not a large voice) and he takes a refined if not a highly passionate view of Monteverdi's extraordinary ballet. He is backed up in revelatory fashion by David Ward, whose Pluto is flexible, formidable and if anything delves deeper into the textual inflexions which the composer evidently sought—and by all accounts got in the emotional impact of the first performance in June 1599.
Lamento d'Arianna is spontaneous and forthright, if short on the rhetorical nuance which characterizes more recent and draining accounts, such as that of Capriccio Stravagante. That said, there are moments of real impact and the climaxes are breathtaking (''Volgiti Teseo'', in particular), each voice with an individual integrity and personality which is rare in our current age where timbral homogeneity is more usually the priority. Not so here, though the ensemble is still outstanding and the singers reminiscent in their conviction of Nadia Boulanger's pioneering Monteverdi recordings of 1938. A valuable issue, spoilt only by a shockingly ill-prepared booklet rife with errors. The transfer sound is largely a success despite a somewhat polarized emphasis of treble and bass.'

Monteverdi Il Ballo delle ingrate; Lamento d'Arianna

(Il) Ballo delle ingrate

Lamento d'Arianna

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