Gesualdo

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Both Kaljuste's orchestra and his instinct are good ones; the insistent suspensions of Gesualdo's vocal writing - not so much sliding as grinding over one another - translate beautifully for... — Gramophone Magazine, November 2015 More…

Release Date: 18th Sep 2015
Catalogue No: 4811800
Label: ECM
Series: New Series
Length: 58 minutes

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Gesualdo: Moro, lasso, al mio duolo

Work length4:33

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Tallinn Chamber Orchestra
Tõnu Kaljuste
Recorded: 2014-02
Recording Venue: The Tallinn Methodist Church

Dean, B: Carlo

Work length20:37

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Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir
Tõnu Kaljuste
Recorded: 2014-02
Recording Venue: The Tallinn Methodist Church

Gesualdo: O Crux benedicta

Work length4:14

$1.10

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Tallinn Chamber Orchestra
Tõnu Kaljuste
Recorded: 2014-02
Recording Venue: The Tallinn Methodist Church

Tüür: Lombra della croce

Work length6:57

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Tallinn Chamber Orchestra
Tõnu Kaljuste
Recorded: 2014-02
Recording Venue: The Tallinn Methodist Church

Tüür: Psalmody

Work length22:09

$1.10

$1.50

$2.05

Tallinn Chamber Orchestra
Tõnu Kaljuste
Recorded: 2014-02
Recording Venue: The Tallinn Methodist Church

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This absorbing project finds Australian composer Brett Dean and Estonian composer Erkki-Sven Tüür drawing inspiration in very different ways from the music, life and times of Carlo Gesualdo and juxtaposes these reflections with Gesualdo’s own music.

The music of Carlo Gesualdo, Prince of Venosa (1566-1613) has exerted a powerful influence on composers down the ages. His highly-charged, mannerist, idiosyncratic vocal music constitutes “a gallery of dramatically-lit portraits of human emotions with a heavy emphasis on the extremes of joy and despair” (to quote former Hilliard Ensemble singer Gordon Jones).

Brett Dean’s ‘Carlo’ (composed 1997) begins with pure Gesualdo from the 6th Book of Madrigals, then gradually enters a very 20th century sound-world. Through use of both sampled and real-time voices as well as increasingly intense strings Dean paints an hallucinatory picture of the Prince of Verona’s state of mind as he is driven toward his violent crimes of passion (he murdered his wife and her lover when he caught them in flagrante delicto) .

Erkki Sven Tüür’s ‘L’Ombra di Gesualdo’ references the Gesualdo motet ‘O crux benedicta’ from the Cantiones sacrae, and Gesualdo’s piece is also heard in an arrangement for strings by Tüür. The programme is completed by Tüür’s ‘Psalmody’, which is without a Gesualdo-inspired subtext but it too cross-references older and newer music, within the narrower time-frame of Tüür’s own oeuvre.

Reviews

November 2015

Both Kaljuste's orchestra and his instinct are good ones; the insistent suspensions of Gesualdo's vocal writing - not so much sliding as grinding over one another - translate beautifully for strings, muted and thickly scored in close imitation of a viol consort

25th September 2015

This aptly angst-filled album conducted by Tõnu Kaljuste includes stylish string arrangements of Gesualdo’s vocal music, plus related works by Brett Dean and Erkki-Sven Tüür...The Estonians capture the dark psyche [of the Dean] without overdoing it; most chilling is how they evoke glassy loneliness in hushed moments.

New York Times 25th November 2015

in Mr. Tuur’s “Psalmody” (1993/2011), a minimalist instrumental part blends to intriguing effect with the Renaissance-inspired choral line.

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