Mogens Pedersøn:
1. book of madrigals 1608 Danish

Vocal ensemble Musica Ficta
Artistic Director Bo Holten

First ever recording of this national monument, 21 Italian madrigals by the Danish pupil of Gabrieli, Mogens Pedersøn.
Reviews · Contents

International edition /DaCapo 8.224219 (Red front cover)
Danish edition / Naxos 8.990101

Musica Ficta's madrigalists:
Malene Nordtorp, Elisabeth Holmertz (sopranos), Rie Koch, Helen Rossil (altos), John Kjøller, Christian Hauskov (tenors), Hans-Henrik Raaholt (bass).

Recorded at Torpen Kapel, Humlebæk, 14-15 November 2001 and 22-24 February 2002
Producer: Jesper Jørgensen & sound engineer: Jesper Jørgensen

Cover picture: Detail from “The Dream of Christian IV before the battle of Listerdyb” (ca. 1645), Rosenborg Castle, Copenhagen.

The recording has been supported by the following trust:
Hielmstiernee-Rosencroneske Stiftelse & Magister Jürgen Balzers Fond

Homepage daCapo · Musica Ficta: www.ficta.dk
Back to Discography · (English site)

World Premier Recording of a major work by Denmark’s first great international composer: that is what the vocal group Musica Ficta has recorded under the leadership of Bo Holten. The composer is Mogens Pedersøn, and the work is his First Book of Madrigals from 1608, written during a stay in Venice, where he studied with the maestro Giovanni Gabrieli. Pedersøn – also called by the Latin name Magnus Petreus – had been sent to Venice by King Christian IV, and his First Book of Madrigals was the proof of his greatness.
Mogens Pedersøn lived from 1585 until 1623. He rose to become the vicekapelmester or deputy royal conductor of the art-loving and music-loving King Christian IV, who ensured that he and other talented young composers were sent to Gabrieli in Venice. This was where the genres motet and madrigal flourished, and Pedersøn was fortunate enough to be granted several stays in the inspiring environment where the best composers in Europe met and exchanged ideas.
In 1608, as the crowning achievement of his training with Gabrieli, Pedersøn published his First Book of Madrigals with 21 songs of love – both requited and unrequited – in sensual poems. And what an exam result! The choral pieces are saturated with images and impressions of all that love. They are moving, intense and sensitive, and even in his youth Mogens Pedersøn was a master of the motion of voices and the use of dissonances that are resolved into the most beautiful concords. A true jewel of Danish music now becomes sounding reality performed by a specialist ensemble in the field.

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Reviews:

....Though rhythmically (Pedersøn) is not quite as fleet as Monteverdi, he shares Gesualdo's fondness for chromatic side-slipping, although he doesn't follow him all the way into those juicy dissonances. Instead he's subtler: one voice will drop a semitone, undermining the harmony, so that you are never quite sure how it will proceed - and because of the harmonic indecision, so to speak, it's sometimes not quite obvious what he's up to until you listen closely.
On those grounds it must have been hell to prepare for recording: the note isn't necessarily going to fall where the line might seem to be predicting. But you'd never know that from the sure-footed performances from the seven singers of Musica Ficta, under the expert guidance of Bo Holten, who keeps the music dancing through the most perilous sequences. Excellent recorded sound, too.
Martin Anderson, "International Record Review" (October 2003):

"Parmi ces vingt et un pièces, plusieurs perles de la plus belle eau, telles Moririo , cor mio, T'amo mia vita, O che soave baccio..., où brille la virtuosité sans faille de Musica Ficta..."
Roger Tellart, Diapason

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CONTENTS:
1. Ecco la Primavera
2. Se nel partir
3. Morirò, cor mio
4. T'amo mia vita
5. O che soave baccio
6. Son vivo e non son vivo
7. Care lagrime mie
8. Se del mio lagrimare
9. Come esser può
10. S' io rido et scherzo
11. Nell‚ apparir dell' amorosa Aurora
12. Tutti presero all' hora
13. Tra queste verdi fronde
14. Amor, per tua mercè
15. Donna, mentre i‚vi miro
16. Non voglio più servire
17. Dimmi, caro ben mio
18. Io non credea già mai
19. Lascia, semplice, lascia
20. Madonn', Amor ed io
21. Et ella all'hor spiegò

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