Love's Labyrinth: Songs and Duets of Monteverdi and His Contemporaries

In Love’s Labyrinth, the Gonzaga Band navigate a path between the ardour and anguish of love, from the most exquisitely wrought madrigals of Monteverdi to the lively and sensuous dance rhythms of popular canzonettas. In the process, they explore the development of a new style in Italian composition and performance practice, through which musicians were striving to find new ways of expressing and heightening the emotional power of their poetic texts. Their distinctive arrangements, drawn from sources connected to the ducal court of Ferrara as well as Venice and Florence, heighten the intimate connection between the cornett and the human voice, interweaving in dazzling duet.