Very little is known of the life and work of Simone Balsamino from Urbino; his activity, as far as we can tell, lasted but four years: from 1590 to 1596. His first publication was the volume of Novellette, a collection of six-voice madrigals dedicated to Francesco Maria II Della Rovere, which includes a spiritual madrigal and seventeen madrigals derived from Tasso’s Aminta. Balsamino’s style appears at the same time in keeping with the music of his day and experimental in his use of both monody and polyphony, which are employed in such a way as to give emphasis to declamation.

The program is completed by the articulated and complex Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda by Claudio Monteverdi, first staged in Venice’s Palazzo Mocenigo in 1624 and included in the 8th volume of Madrigali Guerrieri et Amorosi con alcuni opuscoli di genere rappresentativo, published in 1638. The works are interpreted by the Madrigalists of Radio Svizzera Italiana conducted by Diego Fasolis, who are specialists of this type of repertoire.