Performers: Rossana Bertini (soprano), Marina De Liso (mezzosoprano), Claudio Cavina (countertenor), Sandro Naglia (tenor), Giuseppe Maletto (tenor), Daniele Carnovich (bass), Gabriele Palomba (lute), Franco Pavan (lute), Fabio Bonizzoni (harpsichord)
Playing time: 63'
Recording date: April 1999 (Roletto)
Marenzio's ninth and final book of madrigals, in five voices, was published in 1599, shortly before his death. Marenzio's style was on the verge of becoming old-fashioned by this time, and rather than avoiding that, he seems to welcome it by choosing older poets who were also going out of style among madrigalists. Poets are given parenthetically.
However, Marenzio is less old-fashioned in his settings than he is distinct from the path of evolution which eventually won out. He adopts a new austerity here, yet lively at the same time, but with a somehow calculating and uncompromising basis. It seems critics of the "new music" were unsure whether to lambaste him or not.
Another recording devoted to Marenzio:
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Todd M. McComb