Obra: Eighth Book of Madrigals (Madrigali guerrieri et amorosi)

It was unfair to pair the exquisite madrigals and songs of Barbara Strozzi with a weighty piece by Monteverdi.

Claudio Monteverdi spent a great deal of his career writing madrigals, of which he published nine books. The Italian ensemble La Venexiana treated us to a baker's dozen of his later madrigals, mainly drawn from books six to eight, in the elegant surroundings of Christ Church in Spitalfields.