Written for courts and patrons whose pleasure it was to surround themselves with the finest artists of the time, the madrigal was the secular song par excellence. With amorous texts depicting the antitheses of love-suffering and life-death, it reached its highest expression with Monteverdi. Monteverdi’s Second Book of Madrigals was published when the composer was just 22 years. In these new works he moves almost completely away from the repetitive structure typical of the First Book, and towards the “form without a form” which is shaped around the lyric that inspires and sustains it. The poetry and images chosen here emphasize the two favourite themes of court culture: love and nature. In this recording the vocal parts are sung by male voices only and the works are presented in the original order of the 1590 Venetian edition. Book 1 is available on Naxos 8.555307.