Magdalena Kožená LETTERE AMOROSE

Lettera amorosa is the name of a song by Monteverdi, but in plural form it provides an apposite title for this collection of Italian love songs from the 17th century. “I grew up with this music, and wanted to come back to it”, says Magdalena Kožená. As a result of the weight accorded to music education in communist Czechoslovakia, she was just six when she joined the Children’s Choir at the Philharmonic of her native Brno, where this repertoire was part of the programme. When she was 16 and studying at the conservatory in Brno, she teamed up with a lutenist to perform secular songs by Monte­verdi and his compatriots, and revelled in the creative freedom their music allowed her.

“I find its simplicity very attractive”, she says. “And a simple song can go very deep. This music speaks to people who don’t regard themselves as classical specialists. It comes from a time when there was no equivalent to our divide be­tween classical and pop music: it was simply the music everybody heard and sang. Some of these songs would have been performed in churches, but some are street music, and others were just intended for people to come together and play, rather than perform for an audience. It’s very much ensemble music, rather than about who is going to shine the brightest, and be the star. Because these songs are not difficult technically, one is able to get closer to the essence of what music is about. This is liberating: you’re singing for your own pleasure.” Finding the right ensemble with whom to record was crucial. The singer particularly liked the undogmatic approach of Private Musicke, and the effects it generated through its imaginative use of plucked and bowed period instruments. “The basic assumption with this repertoire is that everybody is free to make their own arrangements, and decide which instruments they will use. We experimented with a lot of different arrangements in concerts before the recording – and this is a freedom we are no longer used to in classical music. It’s got nothing to do with the usual rehearsed approach, where you try to perform it exactly the way you prepared it. It’s a completely different way of thinking about music.” They decided to switch the focus away from Monteverdi – who makes just one appearance – on to songs which many listeners will never have heard. This is a repertoire whose daring dissonances are sometimes closer to modern music than Handel, Vivaldi or even the Romantics. The instrumental selections recorded by Pierre Pitzl and his Private Musicke ensemble agreeably reinforce the period colour. (Michael Church)