Sigismondo d'India - Lamenti & Sospiri

 

Sigismondo d'INDIA (1582-1629)

Lamenti & sospiri

Ardo, lassa, o non ardo?

Piangono al pianger mio

Mercè! grido piangendo

Chi nudrisce tua speme, cor mio?

Io viddi in terra angelici costumi

Voi Ch'ascoltate

Dialogo della rosa

Or che il ciel e la terra

Canzona cromatica

Lamento d'Olimpia

Torna il sereno Zefiro

Odi quel Rosignolo

Mentre che'l cor

Pallidetta qual viola

La tra'l sangue e le morti egro giacente

Sprezzami bionda e fuggimi

Infelice Didone

Su su prendi la cetra

Un di soletto

Julie Roset (soloist) & Mariana Flores (soloist)

Cappella Mediterranea 

Leonardo García Alarcón

‘Sigismondo d’India has a “twin”, a “mirror” in music: Claudio Monteverdi. Both men developed, in parallel, a style that radically changed the history of music. A style inherited from composers such as Luca Marenzio and Carlo Gesualdo, but which d’India and Monteverdi were to transform through the creation of new techniques, theorised by the latter in 1638 under the name seconda pratica, which consisted in breaking the rules of counterpoint in order to express heightened emotion. This is why I like to call Sigismondo d’India’s style “mannerist” – not in the sense of “mannered” as it is sometimes misinterpreted – so as to underline the crucial role played by composers like d’India and Monteverdi in effecting the transition between Renaissance and Baroque. Like the disegno artists of that period, who exaggerated the gesture and form of the Renaissance figure, like Michelangelo Buonarroti in his Sistine Chapel, Sigismondo d’India brings us back to a language, the fruit of the sophisticated reworking of a heritage.'

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The performance by sopranos Mariana Flores and Julie Roset is excellent. Both have clear and expressive voices, and their sense of diction is top-class. They also have a good knowledge of the subtle ornamentation that this early Baroque monodic style requires. The accompaniment of the Cappella Mediterranea is effective and sensitive to the vocal line. 

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