Humori by Les Voix Baroques and Les Voix Humaines (Atma). God bless the scholars and musicologists. Carnival is the period just before Lent which, as the superb notes here remind us, was called by Goethe “a festival that people give to themselves and not one given to the people.” This madrigal comedy by Orazio Vecchi was intended, then, to take place over three days during Carnival and devoted to the four “humors” of medieval medicine— blood, phlegm, yellow and black bile. By comedy’s end, all were supposedly ready for Lent. Composers on the disc include Roland de Lassus, Praetorius, Scheidt, Dowland, Gibbons and Monteverdi. The whole thing is delightful. ★★★( J. S.)
Date:
Mon, 02/23/2009