È Questa Vita Un Lampo by Monteverdi, Aπό (2017/2017), αγωγός Elena Sartori, Basilica Of Sant'Apollinare In Classe, Genoa, Italy

Spontaneity, exuberance, diversity, silence: these are the ingredients for a good Selva. From the immense, comfortable shade of the first Magnificat to the vertiginous heights of Dixit Dominus II (like branches broken in a violent storm); from the delicate Salve Regina to the powerful “tacet” notations, which celebrate for a moment the voices and the fatigue, forcing every thought to withdraw into itself… It is impossible to get lost in Monteverdi’s “forest”: just surrender to your own inexhaustible need for beauty, and you will be safe immediately. And when in the Selva Monteverdi turns away from sacred texts, he sets to music verses by Petrarch, Grillo and other anonymous poets, all celebrating the brevity of life, the deadly pace of disillusionment and the inevitable flowing of time.