Michelangelo’s Madrigal/Bartolomeo Tromboncino - Kate Macoboy soprano and Robert Meunier lute

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Description

Celebrating the 500th anniversary of the first known publication of Michelangelo’s poetry, “Come harò donque ardire,” with a musical setting by Lucrezia Borgia’s singer and lutenist, Bartolomeo Tromboncino. An old friend of Michelangelo's, GF Fattucci commented that Michelangelo's poems were 'wonderful things to sing and in particular, his madrigals.'

The album, ‘Michelangelo’s Madrigal’ (Kate Macoboy, soprano, and Robert Meunier, lute; Et’cetera KTC 1623) fully embraces one of the most important musical ideals of the 16th century, 'sprezzatura', a rhythmic freedom from notated rhythms using rhythmic rubato, reflecting long/short syllables, accents/emphases, gaps/additional pauses, messa di voce, etc., to best realise the expressive language of Italian song in a dramatic, yet natural way.

*RECORDING OF THE MONTH*
'The text is in the centre, and both Kate Macoboy and Robert Meunier aim for a personal treatment of the text. This is a very intimate recital: one has the feeling of being close to the artists, who sing and play specially for you…This is a wonderful disc which requires attentive listening. Only then can the depth of these songs be fully appreciated.' MusicWeb International, Johan van Veen, April 2019

‘Kate Macoboy's soprano, with lutenist Robert Meunier, restores the primacy of textual expression to 16th-century song’. The Observer, Sir Nicholas Kenyon, November 2018.

‘Meunier and Macoboy put into practice the latest performance theories in this sequence of Renaissance Italian madrigals…Macoboy's pure soprano is balanced beautifully with Meunier's eloquent playing, her subtle colour variations beguiling’. Sunday Times, Stephen Pettitt, November 2018

‘Kate Macoboy (soprano) and Robert Meunier (lute) deliver a stirring, stark rendition of “Come harò donque ardire” (“How, then, could I ever dare”), with music by Bartolomeo Tromboncino)’. Maria Vos, Theatre Scene Cape Town (as featured in the internationally acclaimed full-length feature film, ‘Michelangelo – Love and Death’ for Seventh Art Productions).

'Really high quality' - James McCarthy, Features Editor, Gramophone Music Magazine