"Mantova" - Monteverdi's Madrigals

After having presented all of Monteverdi’s madrigals, Paul Agnew and Les Arts Florissants pursue their exploration of this repertoire, with a programme gathering extracts from Books IV, V and VI. 

« The years in which the Fourth (1603), the Fifth (1605) and the Sixth Book (1614) were published probably count amongst the most remarkable for the evolution of Eastern music. In the interval, Monteverdi composes his operas L’Orfeo, in 1607, and L’Arianna, in 1608 – two works which deeply remodel the musical landscape and will end up outshining the genre of the madrigal for five voices, as will the Seventh and the Eights Books do later on, each one in its own way. (…) The works appearing in this programme form some kind of a « grande finale » for this genre which reigned over musical composition for over 150 years. » 

Paul Agnew

This concert forms part of the celebrations for the 450^th anniversary of Claudio Monteverdi’s death.