Monteverdi swings....

Back in February I blogged about a recent Virgin Classics release, Monteverdi "Teatro d'Amore,' with Christina Pluhar leading a group of choice early music singers and the instrumental group L'Arpeggiata in a varied program of instrumental and vocal music by Monteverdi.  I enthused about the interesting selection, terrific instrumental arrangements, and wonderful singing, informed by the insight that Monteverdi was a popular composer and his non-religious works deserved to be approached in that spirit.

Since then, I have found that this recording has become one of my favorites, and especially the tracks on which countertenor Philippe Jaroussky and the ensemble slightly "swing" the rhythms, emphasizing even more the popular nature of this music when it was written.  Remember, Monteverdi was one of the great popular song-writers of his time.  As admired as his operas and sacred music were, the books of madrigals really made his fame, and madrigals were the popular songs of the time.

I was finally inspired to do a little comparative listening to see how much extra "swing" Jaroussky and Pluhar were providing, especially in the striking first song on the disc (following an exuberant reading of the instrumental prelude to Monteverdi's opera "L'Orfeo").    The song, one of Monteverdi's most popular, to judge by the number of recordings, is Ohime ch'io cado - which, translated in popular idiom, might be called "Oy vey, I'm falling in love...."  (Told ya so!)  Anyway, on the new Virgin recording, this starts off with a jazzy striding bass line, and the striding bass is emphasized throughout the song, emerging strongly between the verses to reinforce the jazzy nature of the interpretation.  Jaroussky, by contrast, sings the conversational vocal line relatively straight... perhaps tweaking it just a bit, but with his usual beautiful clarity, dramatic emphasis, and coloristic shading.  (The man is truly a great artist.)

How does this stack up against the others?  Searching through my collection, I came up with four other recordings of this song, all done by early music groups purporting to observe performance practice of the time and place (the piece was published in a small songbook collection in 1624 in Venice).  I listened to Guillemette Laurens with Skip Sempe conducting Capriccio Stravagante (Deutsche Harmonia Mundi), Maria Cristina Kiehr with Jean-Marc Aymes and Concerto Soave (Harmonia Mundi France), Patrizia Ciofi, with Emmanuelle Haim leading Le Concert d'Astree (also Virgin Classics), and Lavinia Bertotti with Roberto Gini and his Ensemble Concerto (Dynamic). 

My most interesting observation is how similar they all are -- and that "all" includes Jaroussky & Pluhar.  Although nobody else swings the rhythm quite as much as Pluhar, I would say that Aymes comes close, and the others seem not far behind.  Maybe the song just lends itself to that, with a striding bass that features dotted rhythms at times.  (I wish I had the score, but discovering that I did not, I went on line and ordered it, but it won't be here for a while.)  All of the other recordings are by sopranos, but that makes no difference because Jaroussky, although labeled a countertenor on the recording, is really a male soprano.  His voice sounds slightly different from all these women, just enough for one to conclude that a man is singing, but I wonder how a critical listener would do in picking out Jaroussky in a blind test of these recordings, if told in advance that a countertenor was included among the sopranos?  (That's assuming our listener was not already familiar with Jaroussky's voice.)

After listening to these five versions, I still hold Jaroussky/Pluhar as my favorite, but if asked to recommend another without the anachronistic swing to it, I would probably go for Kiehr and Aymes, since the others to varying degrees play down the accompaniment rhythm in a way that slightly detracts from the popular nature of the song.  Indeed, Sempe goes to the extreme of filling out the accompaniment with a full string section that rather buries the bass - and I think the bass really helps to make this a memorable song.  And memorable it is....  Top of the 1624 Venice hit parade!

And, as for Mr. Jaroussky, for whom I've formed a bit of an obsession, I can highly recommend another of his Virgin Classics recital discs, titled Vivaldi Heroes.  This is a collection of arias from Vivaldi operas, in which heroic parts are scored for castrato.  Jaroussky's clear, high soprano voice fits this music perfectly.  I wonder how close he comes to sounding like an actual early 18th century castrato?  I've so enjoyed this recording that I've been busy assembling a sequel on my ipod, getting complete Vivaldi opera recordings that include Jaroussky in the cast -- there are quite a few now -- and extracting his arias for importing to the ipod software, then arranging my own Vol. 2 of Vivaldi Heros.  Great listening.