Vical ensemble The Fieri Consort are releasing their new album of music from the late Renaissance Italian composer Luca Marenzio in November, and for one of the tracks (‘O Mirtillo, Mirtillo, anima mia’) they have collaborated with artist Eleanor Meredith. The latter has produced an an original animated film that complements the serene music beautifully.
The Fieri Consort’s album, The Destined Knot, features renditions from Marenzio’s seventh book of madrigals, published in 1595. Marenzio was one of Italy’s many great Renaissance composers, alongside the likes of Monteverdi and Gesualdo, both of whom feature in our list of best Italian composers. This particular song collection follows the narrative of Il Pastor Fido (‘The Faithful Shepherd’), a tragicomedy by playwright Giovanni Battista Guarini.
Over their ten years of performing to date, The Fieri Consort have explored music from different corners of the European Renaissance. ‘The pioneering approach to harmony, word-painting and texture taken by those sixteenth-century composers has proved an inspiration for our projects which mix the past with the present,’ the Consort tell us. ‘Our aim is to convey to the audience the passion these composers had for the texts that inspired them, and through this recording and accompanying film, audiences can experience this music in a new and innovative way.’
Fieri Consort pic: Matt Martin