Concerto Italiano, Rinaldo Alessandrini

Monteverdi: L'Orfeo: Overture
Monteverdi: Non si levava ancor l’alba novella, SV40
Monteverdi: E dicea l’una sospirando allora
Monteverdi: Il settimo libro de madrigali, 1619 'Concerto'
Monteverdi: Su su, su pastorelli vezzosi, SV 166
Monteverdi: Sù, sù, sù augelletti canori (from Ninth Book of Madrigals)
Marini, B: Balletto secondo à 3 e à 4, Op. 22 No. 2: III. Gagliarda
Monteverdi: Su, su, su che'l giorno è fore, SV 9
Monteverdi: De la bellezza le dovute lodi
Monteverdi: Duri, e penosi
Monteverdi: Io mi son giovinetta, SV 86
Monteverdi: Zefiro torna
Falconieri: Ciaccona – L’eroica
Monteverdi: Sento un certo non so che
Marini, B: Balletto secondo à 3 e à 4, Op. 22 No. 2: III. Gagliarda
Monteverdi: Chiome d'oro (Book 7)
Monteverdi: Alle danze
Marini, B: Corrente nona
Monteverdi: Movete al mio bel son le piante snelle
Monteverdi: L'Orfeo: Balli
Monteverdi: Gli arditi balli e l’armonia dei canti (from Madrigali guerrieri, et amorosi)

This new recording is like an insert between the books of madrigals that mark the course of Rinaldo Alessandrini’s discography, in his long-term progress towards a complete recorded edition.

Daylight is a continuation of Night, which appeared on the occasion of the 350th Anniversary of the composer’s birth. Not only do we have the same thematic, non- chronological concept - a sort of ‘Best Of’ Monteverdi’s nine books of madrigals and opera arias, augmented by instrumental pieces by Falconieri and Marini - but it also has its own discrete dramaturgy, from dawn to the full sunlight of day, a scenario conceived by the Italian conductor and harpsichordist.

Borne aloft by the seasoned voices of Concerto Italiano and an unusually diverse instrumental ensemble, this sequence of music gravitates towards the rising sun, setting hearts on fire, singing of love, joy, passion, while holding up a mirror to the radiant glories of nature.

Here Rinaldo Alessandrini has set the scene for a hymn to beauty and to love, confessing his fascination with the inexhaustible riches of this music. As he admits, “I count myself among the company of those who are in love with the Monteverdian ideal that everything is theatre: a theatre made up of humanity, an aspiration towards the sublime, and a happy resolution of life’s sorrows through love, the healing power of song, and the energetic exaltation of the dance. This recording is intended as my final, definitive declaration of love for Monteverdi. Having associated with him for more than forty years, I owe him a considerable part of everything I’ve learnt.”

"You may find more richly dramatic accounts of the individual operas (scenes from which don’t quite hit the ground at full dramatic speed, vocally), but you’d struggle to name a more beguiling whole of its kind." - Gramophone Magazine, January 2022.