16th-century Italy was a battleground involving not only Italian provinces and city-states but the French, the Spanish, the Swiss, the Pope’s army, etc. (For a wonderful account, read the book Michelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling by Ross King.) This disc’s program offers some musical documentation of the conflicts–the French victory at Marignano, the success of the Milanese at Pavia–as well as other contemporary works that just happen to be representative of the time and place. Among these are organ intonations and canzonas by Andrea Gabrieli and Claudio Merulo. However, the disc is centered on two magnificent Magnificats and a Regina Coeli by Giorgio Mainerio–one of those highly under-appreciated composers whose works have been poorly preserved, lost, or ignored–and two examples of a unique and curiously fascinating form known as “battaglia”, a musical depiction of battle. Mainerio’s works are tuneful, sophisticated in polyphonic development, and rich in harmonic interest, and certainly deserve the caring, musically refined, and interpretively engaging treatment they receive here.
Clément Jannequin’s La Guerre is a well-known example of a genre (attempted by many composers) that proposed, largely through bold percussive effects and brash, boisterous instrumental and/or vocal utterances, to recall the belligerence, the chaos, and in general the adversarial aspects of a battle. Jannequin’s instrumental piece represents a French perspective, while the extended vocal/instrumental work by Matthias Werrecore (11 and one half minutes) addresses the Italian victory at Pavia.
While overall this disc is notable and interesting for its varied repertoire and evocation of prevalent 16th-century Italian musical styles, it’s ultimately a mixed bag that will strongly appeal to some listeners and confuse others. I would like to hear more of Mainerio’s works, which fundamentally have nothing to do with those of Jannequin or Werrecore, and I would like to see them presented apart from a contrived program having some vague connection to historical battles. Werrecore’s La Bataglia Taliana pretends to be a significant “battle” piece, but its vocal scoring, although often highly virtuosic and very colorful, sounds more like squabbling barnyard animals than a ferocious clash of human armies. The singing and instrumental performances are very fine, and the sound is quite respectable–I’m just not sure how to categorize this, or how to listen to it, as its programmatic premise remains elusive, even after three hearings.
