SO SWEET IS THE TORMENT

Sometimes, I find myself having a pronounced sense of déjà vu when hearing a piece of music on the radio. It stops me dead in my tracks, and I wonder if it was centuries ago since I last heard it. The idea of musical masterpieces traveling through my endless reincarnations is a poetic, if somewhat fanciful, notion. However, I had such a recall experience the other day when I heard a beautiful performance of Monteverdi's "Si dolce è'l tormento" by Christina Pluhar's L'Arpeggiata and found myself once again suspended in an immersive feeling of timelessness.

Suddenly, I was sitting at the back of Basilica di San Marco in Venice as the soaring sound of the soprano, accompanied by theorbo and cornetto, filled the Byzantine space with the warmth and humanity of Monteverdi's madrigal. Just like that, I had effortlessly slipped back in time (chronostasis), as once again my musical time machine had transported me through history like a more subtle form of teleportation.

Perhaps, if you listen to this sublime recording, you'll be transported too.