These two madrigal books could hardly be more different. Book 2 was published when Monteverdi was only 23, and Book 7 nearly 30 years later. It is known that the Seventh Book gathers together works that must have been written many years apart (the opening work, Tempro la cetra, is reminiscent of Orfeo’s ‘Possente spirto’ aria of 1607, a fact that La Venexiana, in this reissue of a 1999 recording, underline by varying the instrumentation of the ritornello). The common denominator is its consistent use of instruments in conjunction with the voices.

Recording the complete book is a considerable undertaking, only previously achieved by the Consort of Musicke (Virgin Veritas, nla). But Rooley’s ensemble is not quite on the form it displayed in its earlier recital of excerpts from Books 7 and 8, which has hardly aged and is well worth seeking out. In some individual cases (Paul Elliott’s breathtaking Tempro la cetra, for example) I would rate the Consort of Musicke above La Venexiana.The Italians’ free approach to rhythm is alive to the spirit of the music. Ohimé, dov’è il mio ben manages to be a set of variations on the Romanesca theme, and something else entirely: they convince you that this double-reading is precisely what Monteverdi intended. Though not everything reflects the multi-faceted Monteverdi aesthetic, the pieces that are recorded less often still shed a useful light on his working process. As the first intégrale by a modern Italian ensemble, this is a significant addition to the catalogue.

As with their recording of Book 4 (7/04), La Venexiana’s cast for Book 2 is virtually identical to Concerto Italiano’s a decade earlier. But whereas I gave the latter the edge in Book 4, here I’d tend towards La Venexiana. Concerto Italiano zip through the whole book in just under an hour, and given that the same singers take more than 10 minutes longer in the new version it is perhaps surprising that the two approaches don’t sound more different.

Claudio Cavina doesn’t fragment the text in the manner of his rival, but his more leisurely readings generate a more effective charge by lingering over Monteverdi’s climactic build-ups (as in the last line of Mentr’io mirava fiso, to mention just one instance), and he has the edge on intonation. This strikes me as the stronger of these two offerings. Monteverdi may not yet be at the mould-breaking stage of Book 7, but in nearly every piece he is already fully and compellingly himself.