CLAUDIO MONTEVERDI Addio Florida bella. Madrigals from the 5th to 9th Books Concerto Vocale, René Jacobs

To what extent can music be cruel? wondered the critico acerbo Artusi in 1600. He was thinking of ‘modern’ music, and especially of the madrigals of the fourth and fifth books of Monteverdi. It should be said that in these late Renaissance times, the dissonances and other expressive resources used by the father of Baroque music contained plenty to offend the ears of the zealots of old-fashioned polyphony. In theory and in practice, Monteverdi concerned himself with the text, disregarding the classical rules – and how right he was!