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Ohimè ch’io cado, SV 316, for soprano and basso continuo, music by Claudio Monteverdi on an anonymous text, published in 1624 in Carlo Milanuzzi’s Quarto Scherzo della ariose vaghezze, an anthology of Venetian secular songs, along with two other works by Claudio Monteverdi: La mia turca che d’amor, and Sì dolce è ‘l tormento.

“Although arias and canzonettas make up most of the Quarto Scherzo, the collection also contains two strophic cantatas, one by Milanuzzi and one by Monteverdi. These ‘cantade’ were among the earliest compositions to be named as such, and represent classic examples of the so-called ’strophic bass cantata,’ a genre almost entirely exclusive to Venice. As the title suggests, these early cantatas are simply settings of strophic variations above an unchanging bass, the first of which were composed by Monteverdi and his colleagues at San Marco, Grandi and Berti. Monteverdi had already demonstrated an affinity for strophic variations over an unchanging bass in his seventh book of madrigals (1619) with ‘Tempro la cetra,’ yet had not fully explored this soon-to-be favored compositional technique in a monodic setting, first illustrated in his ‘Ohimè ch’io cado’ printed in Milanuzzi’s Quarto Scherzo. The six verse cantata interspersed with ritornelli presents an intriguing set of variations that in many ways, represents a kind of prototype for the later solo strophic variations over the popular passacaglia and chaconne basses in the operas of Monteverdi and Cavalli.”
- Cory Michael Gavito
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“Jazz” version arranged by Christina Pluhar

Philippe Jaroussky, countertenor
L’Arpeggiata, conducted by Christina Pluhar

Abbaye d’Ambronay, 18 September 2008

This work will appear (in a studio version) in the album “Monteverdi - Teatro d’Amore”, with Philippe Jaroussky, Núria Rial, Cyril Auvity, Xavier Sabata, and L’Arpeggiata conducted by Christina Pluhar, that will be released by Virgin Classics in January 2009.

I must confess that I dislike these anachronistic arrangements, whether they are made by Christina Pluhar, or even by the great René Jacobs, whose work I usually admire. But I find this performance much better than the short participation at the end of the Centenary Gala at Salle Gaveau, on 18 December 2007, and also funnier. However, I still think that poor Monteverdi should be spared this kind of outrage, just like Francesco Cavalli’s Callisto does not need a romantic violoncello solo in the middle of an aria, Herr Jacobs.
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Marc D.

Duration : 0:4:55

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