Reaching for an English word to capture the shifting rhythmic pulse of his Concerto Italiano's performances of Monteverdi, director Rinaldo Alessandrini hazarded 'elasticity'. 'Is that the word?', he queried ABC Radio National's Andrew Ford (who had suggested 'freedom'). It was, yes, and Ford went on to ask, 'Like jazz?'

Exactly. Amazingly. Like jazz. As alive, unpredictable, and fresh as a great session at The Blue Note, Concerto's Italiano's way with Monteverdi is the way of dance and rhythmic play, of seeming improvisation. For all its early music discipline, the ensemble breathes an air of fresh invention. What on earth will come next you wonder? It might be an intimation of swing in their rendering of the great psalm 'Lauda Jerusalem, Dominum' ('Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem'), or a prefiguring of Ella Fitzgerald's virtuosic scat in the filigree ornamentation of the soprano duet, 'Pulchra es' ('Beautiful you are, my love'), from the Song of Songs. You never know what to expect, but when they come, Concerto Italiano's renderings have the force of dynamic inevitability.