Draw On, Sweet Night March 17, 2012

With Artistic Director Paul Flight away on a brief sabbatical this semester, talented guest conductor Amy Stuart Hunn chose this year's collection of "Madrigals across Europe." Ms. Hunn says: "I knew that a program for the California Bach Society would need to convey the amazing diversity and incredible quality that this body of music contains."

Her selection brilliantly showcases the wide variation in style from one country to the next. It includes love songs by German composers Senfl and Hassler, delicate works by Dowland, lively chansons by Janequin and other rarely heard French composers, and culminates with dramatic pieces by Italian madrigal masters d'India and Monteverdi. Harpsichordist Jonathan Salzedo joins the 30-voice chamber chorus for these performances.

The works by d'India come from his Libro Primo de Madrigali (1606), an early publication that nevertheless displays his firm command of the daring chromaticism and vivid text-painting of the seconda prattica, as well as the expressive ingenuity of the emerging monodic style. Monteverdi's Ecco mormorar l'onde (from the 2nd book of madrigals) and Si ch'io vorrei morire (4th book) both explore possible outcomes of passion; while the first offers up-with the sunrise-a prayer for emotional healing, the second is a prayer for death. The concert closes with Rimanti in pace, from Monteverdi's 3rd book of madrigals. This masterpiece of dramatic expression is a tender dialogue between two lovers, Tirsi and Phyllida, who contemplate death as a consequence of forced separation.

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