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)
Comentarios
Publicar un comentario