Rare Italian Madrigals Composers from the upper drawer number several well-known names (music quality increasing a lot over the century), among them principally Giaches de Wert (1535-1596), Carlo Gesualdo (1566-1613), Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643), and, not least, Luca Marenzio (1553-1599), to whom the present CD is entirely devoted. In his rather short lifespan, he managed to write about 500 madrigals between 1580 and 1599. In those two decades, his music developed immensely, reaching it's climax in the last ten years of his life. Though continuing to satisfy his great popular following with loads of small, lighthearted songs, Marenzio excelled also in writing ambitious madrigal cycles, of which two are recorded here: Baci soavi e cari (five 6-part madrigals describing several aspects of kissing) and, maybe his magnum opus, Capitolo - Se quel dolor (ten 6-part madrigals delving into one of the period's favourite subjects: melancholia).
