"Banquet of the senses" Brilliant Classics DVD

I came across this by accident in a record shop. It consists of a staged setting of Monteverdi madrigals, with the singers in period costumes acting out the words - which weren't provided in my copy. Still, for SFr20 (about £9) who can complain? Some of the artists are quite well known - Emma Kirkby and Evelyn Tubb are among the singers (six of them) and the whole thing is organised by Anthony Rooley, well known for his Renaissance music efforts.

The sound is splendid, perhaps slightly too splendid, because it has been recorded in a very reveberant manner, presumably to emulate what the music would have sounded like surrounded by all that marble. It's a little bit overdone, but still enjoyable. The one main bugbear is the lack of the texts, which means that you haven't a clue what they're singing about, unless you speak Italian. The madrigals themselves are a mixture of sacred and secular, and in one sensuous number, the three ladies perform backlit in diaphanous gowns and one is certainly wearing very little under there!

Monteverdi was a briliant madrigal writer (before the famous Vespers and the move to Venice, he was Italy's best-known secular composer). He wrote madrigals right to the end. This is a nice (cheap!) introduction to a splendid body of music.