The ‘Concerto’ (as Claudio Monteverdi entitled his Seventh Book of Madrigals) was published five years after the Sixth Book had appeared. It represents a clear break with Monteverdi’s earlier publications: here the madrigal is transformed or, perhaps, it would be better to say it has vanished, at least in the form that would have been recognised up to that point.

Of 32 compositions there is not a single fivevoice madrigal, only pieces for one to four voices, all with basso continuo, some with violins, along with works that might be called ‘experimental’. It was the heterogeneous nature of this collection that led Monteverdi to use the title ‘Concerto’.

Marco Longhini’s new complete critical edition, the first since Malipiero’s 1932 edition, was prepared specifically for this recording.