Il cor tristo (2014)

"The Hilliard Ensemble, formed in the early 1970s, recently announced its retirement. But one is hard pressed to detect any diminution in the originality of its programming or in its vocal blend. Represented on this album of madrigals are Pisano (1490-1548), Arcadelt (1505-68), and Roger Marsh (1949). Pisano has not been much heard since the rediscovery of the Renaissance Italian madrigal in the 1960s/70s, and these simple, melancholy pieces, focused on the "sad heart" of the title, are worth a new look. They helped define the madrigal as a serious form in contrast to earlier vocal genres like the frottola, and they paved the way for the Flemish import Arcadelt to give the genre its classic foundation. Marsh sets passages of Dante's Divine Comedy in a vaguely madrigalesque style, with extended harmonies; his pieces are more declamatory. But somehow the music, which is mixed up in the program, hangs together; this may be due to the sheer force of the Hilliard Ensemble's personality." (James Manheim, Allmusic)

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