Dutch Madrigals

Chronique

At the outset, a major part of the appeal with Dutch label Globe's Dutch Madrigals, featuring vocal group Camerata Trajectina, is the generous selection of pieces by the rarely recorded composer sometimes referred to in the literature as the "Dutch Gesualdo," Cornelis Thymanszoon Padbrué. Although Padbrué never resorts to the torturous chromaticism associated with the Italian prince, there is enough harmonic strangeness, vocal onomatopoeia, and artful scattering of vocal parts typical to the Italian madrigal to justify the attribution. Padbrué is also presented in an instrumental context through the inclusion of a couple of wedding pieces written for string consort in the early 1640s; they are lovely. Two madrigals stand out for their great length and wealth of detail; "Twaelfste Kusjen" (Twelfth Kiss) deals with a young man, cursed by Venus' wrath, having to contend with a burning desire for a girl cold as ice to him -- it is reminiscent of Monteverdi's Madrigali amorosi. "Op de Tweedraght der Christ Princen" (Concerning the Discord Between the Christian Princes) is a wholly extraordinary discourse on the political situation vis-à-vis 1640; as the Western princes squabble among themselves, the Turks are able stream into the breach. One would love to know what contemporary Dutch composer Louis Andriessen, who composed "Il Principe" (The Prince) after Machiavelli in the 1970s, would think of this ancient predecessor to his approach! The 15-minute-long madrigal "De Kruisbergh" (Mount Calvary) is a moving, luxuriantly scored, and highly metaphorical vision of Christ's crucifixion that ends Padbrué's share of the disc in a satisfying way. The filler, only about 15 minutes' worth, consists of a single instrumental piece and madrigal by the father of the Dutch madrigal, Cornelis Schuyt. A similar combination is reserved for Padbrué's equally eccentric colleague Joan Albert Ban. In his consort piece "Vulcaens Winckel" (Vulcan's Workplace), a Vulcan's foreman is heard calling out either "blaas" (blow) or "sla" (strike) as commands to the workmen in a work that seems an odd forerunner to such Baroque-era pieces as Biber's Battalia and Marais' "Tableau de l'operation de la taille." One of the textual aspects that has heretofore prevented recordings of the works of Dutch madrigal composers is the fact that every known print belonging to such genre is wanting a partbook or two. This indicates that these works were not widely circulated, or even popular, in their time, which is a pity since the Dutch language lends itself well to the idiom of madrigal and the compositions are very strong in terms of quality. Camerata Trajectina has replaced the missing parts without comment, and the new parts sink so seamlessly into the music that they become invisible; Camerata Trajectina's performance of this totally unfamiliar music is first-rate. Globe's Dutch Madrigals introduces an entire subgenre to the recorded literature for the first time and demonstrates that even though the Franco-Flemish were forced to yield the floor of Western music to the Italians around 1600, that it was not for want of skilled and talented composers. The Dutch composers were as able to adapt to Italian practices as easily as Palestrina absorbed the sound, in an earlier time, of the Franco-Flemish ones.
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