Ignore the bizarre tracklist for this CD, one of the most spectacular examples of editorial malfeasance connected to any product currently on the market. As the name of the publication might suggest, only six of these songs are part of the Sei romanze of 1838 (and bear in mind that this is an Italian release!). Some of the others are youthful works, but others range over
Verdi's entire career; the Pietà Signor is from 1894 and is musically related to the other sacred works from the end of the composer's long life. The "chamber songs" designation does not correspond either to the Italian genre name (romanze or romances) or to any established English concept; the originals were simply for voice and piano, but here they are arranged for a small wind ensemble. Some of them have pianistic textures that sound odd in this context, but such arrangements are not unidiomatic.
In any event, the songs are pleasant enough to hear -- recognizably Verdian even for the casual listener in the way they put a sharp dramatic point even on what are, especially in the cases of the earlier songs, quite simple melodies. The booklet notes by Gian Paolo Minardi clarify much about the origins of these songs, which fall into a minor tradition cultivated by most of the Italian opera composers (
Donizetti wrote some 200 of them). Italian vocal students tend to encounter these works during their training and they demand a good deal of precision in the compression of their operatic gestures down to chamber dimensions. The three singers here generally achieve such precision, with bass
Michele Pertusi emerging as a standout with his meditative, rounded tones. Song texts are in Italian only.