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See Terms & Conditions for p&p rates. | |  | Gesualdo: Madrigali libro quinto, 1611
1. Gioite voi col canto 2. S'io non miro non moro 3. Itene, o miei sospiri 4. Dolcissima mia vita 5. O dolorosa gioia 6. Qual fora, donna 7. Felicissimo sonno 8. Se vi duol il mio duolo 9. Occhi del mio cor vita 10. Languisce al fin 11. Mercè grido piangendo 12. O voi, troppo felici 13. Correte, amanti, a prova 14. Asciugate I begli occhi 15. Tu m'uccidi, o crudele 16. Deh, coprite il bel seno 17. Poichè l'avida sete (Prima parte) 18. Ma tu, cagion (Seconda parte) 19. O tenebroso giorno 20. Se tu fuggi, io non resto 21. T'amo, mia vita
For their latest album for ECM, and over 20 years after their first recorded foray into Gesualdo with his Tenebrae Responsories (8438672), The Hilliard Ensemble turn again to the music of the Italian nobleman, this time to sing the entire Fifth Book of Madrigals. An aristocrat who forged an idiosyncratic style of musical expression, Don Carlo Gesualdo, Prince of Venosa, was one of those composers in music history who can truly be described as being ahead of his time: the creator of a harmonic language bold almost to the point of anarchy, whose every unpredictable interval was viewed with suspicion by the opponents of musical autonomy and guardians of liturgically based sacred music. A friend of Torquato Tasso and founder of his own academy, to which many leading madrigalists of the 16th and early 17th centuries belonged, Gesualdo was a highly expressive composer and a virtuoso performer on the bass lute. Yet his chromatic progressions baffled his contemporaries and had to wait until the 19th century era of high Romantic period to find resonance in artistic parallels. Among his most important compositions are six books of five-part madrigals dating from between 1594 and 1611. The last two books in particular – this recording by the Hilliard Ensemble brings new performances of Book 5 – displays his dissonant musical language with its extreme harmonic disruptions, striking tempo contrasts and a distinctly modern feel for drama. The Hilliard Ensemble’s expressive singing, here also featuring soprano Monika Mauch and countertenor David Gould, conjures up that sound described by the great music historian Hans Redlich as growing out of “the antithesis between extravagant/debauched eroticism and self-castigating longing for death”. “Few vocalists if any could match this group for their tuning. In works such as Dolcissima mia vita) with its chromatic ending and its flickering lines at the word 'fire'), the effect is superbly assured and focused...there are some fine tracks, and the exquisitely searing high voice of Monika Mauch makes an unforgettable entry in 'Languisce al fin'.” BBC Music Magazine, July 2012 *** “Their approach is admittedly dramatic [than Italian ensembles] and they're less intent on milking the potential of every dissonance...The emphasis is placed more squarely on the pieces' trajectories than on the scrunchy details...The Hilliards seem to have found a new lease of life recently. Why indeed not search for dark light in this most paradoxical music.” Gramophone Magazine, July 2012 “They show a late-Renaissance composer writing harmonies that are bizarrely chromatic, the line lurching this way and that. And, for some, the question remains: does this music demonstrate eccentricity for its own sake, or does it contain real emotional substance? The Hilliard Ensemble’s vivid performances can only come from an absolute belief in the music’s merits.” Sunday Times, 8th April 2012 “the fifth contains its quota of surprises, and the Hilliard Ensemble's carefully modulated accounts let those speak for themselves. Sometimes though, it's all too cultivated and detached, and one longs for something a bit earthier” The Guardian, 3rd May 2012 *** “[Gesualdo's] dissonances were literally centuries ahead of his time, their bold gambits regarded with suspicion by his 16th-century peers, and even now testing the imagination and ingenuity of even as accomplished a team as the Hilliard quartet.” The Independent, 20th April 2012 **** “for atmosphere you need to add your own smoke- and drink-filled room, but the music is perfect late-night fare, scintillatingly played.” The Observer, 28th October 2012 “The Hilliard Ensemble captures perfectly the neurotic frenzy, pathologically dislocated harmonies, mental turmoil and nihilism of these extraordinary works, which can still shock the ear and chill the soul. Wisely, the Hilliards don’t over-egg the pudding: perfect intonation and clear textures allow the music to speak for itself. And how!” The Times, 21st April 2012 ***** | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Gesualdo: Madrigali libro quinto, 1611
| | | (also available to download from $10.50) | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Gesualdo: Madrigali libro quinto, 1611
Luísa Tavares (mezzo soprano) & Marco van de Klundert (tenor) The Kassiopeia Quintet Luísa Tavares (mezzo soprano) & Marco van de Klundert (tenor) join The Kassiopeia Quintet for book 5 of Gesuldo’s Madrigals. A highly popular and critically acclaimed series. | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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| |  | Gesualdo: Madrigali libro quinto, 1611The fifth out of six books of madrigals here exemplifies the free style of the ‘seconda prattica', employing an outstanding range of inventive harmony and chromaticism. This is markedly different from the previous generation of madrigal composers, beholden to the strict rules of counterpoint, in 'prima prattica'. The madrigals here are dissonance-laden with constantly shifting harmonies and sometimes abrupt rhythmic contrasts, and are well-advanced of Gesualdo’s own contemporaries in this medium. This complexity of musical style well reflects Gesualdo’s choice of texts which were epigrammatic poems illustrating the extremes and torments of love.
Recorded: Henry Wood Hall, London March 1983 | | | Usually despatched in 8 - 10 working days. |
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| |  | Gesualdo: Madrigals Books 5 and 6
Published together in 1611, Gesualdo’s Fifth and Sixth Books of Madrigals can be seen as musical ‘twins’, concluding a collection of madrigals by a composer whose boundless invention and creativity was unrestrained by an employer’s demands or the constraints of courtly convention. Gesualdo returns to themes of love and rejection, death and suffering, joy and sorrow; creating music which has the power to surprise and enthrall anyone who hears it. This is Delitiæ Musicæ’s final volume of their highly acclaimed cycle of the complete Madrigals. | 
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| |  | Gesualdo: Six books of madrigals for five voices
Karla Schlean (soprano), Clara Foti (mezzo-soprano), Elena Mazzoni (contralto), Rodolfo Farolfi (tenor), Gastone Sarti (baritone) & Dmitri Nabokov (bass) Quintetto Vocale Italiano A fascinating compilation detailing the highly expressive music of Prince, composer and murderer Carlo Gesualdo – one of history’s most colourful figures. Gesualdo’s first six books of madrigals remain his best-known music. While Nos. 1 and 2 rely on mastery of traditional counterpoint, it is in Books 3 and 4 that Gesualdo’s compositional idiosyncrasies – subtle rhythmic irregularities and unusual harmonic intervals – begin to dominate. By the time we reach the final two books, a fully mature style is in evidence: abounding in rich chromaticism, these collections contain a wealth of striking songs in which extremes of emotion are represented. Gesualdo’s daring and forward-looking language was born out of his belief that music must be subservient to textual meaning, and his status as a nobleman allowed him to pursue this position unhindered. Featuring Quintetto Vocale Italiano’s pioneering performance of the works, this release movingly traces the development of a composer whose intensely expressive music was centuries ahead of its time. First complete recording of this dramatic and historically significant body of music: a hugely important set in the wider dissemination of Gesualdo’s oeuvre. Sung texts available from www.newtonclassics.com | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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