Carlo Gesualdo: 26-30 March

[doversoul1]

Monday’s playlist;

Moro lasso (transcribed by Tönu Kaljuste)
Tallinn Chamber Orchestra
Ne reminiscaris; In te Domine speravi
La Compagnia del Madrigale
Baci soave e cari; Quanto ha di dolce Amore; Mentre Madonna il lasso fianco posa;
Ahi, troppo saggia nell'erar
Gesualdo Consort Amsterdam
Harry van der Kamp, director
Com'esser può ch'io viva se m'uccidi; Son sì belle le rose; Bell'angioletta da le vaghe piume
Gesualdo Consort Amsterdam
Harry van der Kamp, director
Caro amoroso neo; Ma se tale ha costei; Se cosi dolce e il duolo; Ma se averra ch'io moia
Delitiae Musicae
Marco Longhini, director
Canzon francese del principe
Fabio Antonio Falcone, harpsichord
Sento che nel partire
Kassiopeia Quintet
O Crux benedicta (arranged by Erkki Sven Tüür)
Tallinnn Chamber Orchestra
Tönu Kaljuste, conductor.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09wvkfs

[Bryn]

That's if it does not get pulled due to Gesualdo's criminal behaviour.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

That's if it does not get pulled due to Gesualdo's criminal behaviour.

- "if you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this episode of Composer of the Week ... "

[Richard Tarleton]

both

Important to note...is the reality that women in late-Renaissance Italy were not allowed amorous dallinces. Spanish conventions, which would have included Naples, inclined to the killing of both the adulteress and her lover, the Northern Italian tradition to killing only the wife []. The custom held that a cuckolded male, and particularly a Neapolitan prince, had not only the right but the duty to protect the honour of the family name by murdering the guilty parties.

- Glenn Watkins, The Gesualdo Hex. Glenn Watkins was interviewed by Catherine Bott on EMS a few years ago.

Further grisly details - will DM recount these? - the bodies were allegedly stripped and left on the grand staircase on Gesualdo's orders...a monk flung himself on Maria's corpse and committed an act of, erm, necrophilia....

Gesualdo was far from being the only composer/nobleman to do the same in similar circumstances- Alfonso Fontanelli, Francesco Rasi....(the latter, having been banned from Tuscany and despatched to Turin, took part in a restaging of Monteverdi's Orfeo )

[BBMmk2]

Many thanks DS for the thumbs up here!

[doversoul1]

The programme is interesting but I’m not terribly keen on one of the ensembles whose recordings have been played most often; I find the countertenor rather pronounced. I wonder how the choice was made.

[Richard Barrett]

The programme is interesting but I’m not terribly keen on one of the ensembles whose recordings have been played most often; I find the countertenor rather pronounced. I wonder how the choice was made.

Likewise. I didn't hear anything to change my mind that the best recordings of Gesualdo so far are the ones by Compagnia dei Madrigali, who have hardly featured at all. Also, nothing from La Venexiana or Concerto Italiano.

[doversoul1]

Likewise. I didn't hear anything to change my mind that the best recordings of Gesualdo so far are the ones by Compagnia dei Madrigali, who have hardly featured at all. Also, nothing from La Venexiana or Concerto Italiano.

Today’s programme opened with La Venexiana. I am glad I didn’t give up. The difference it makes!

[Richard Barrett]

Today’s programme opened with La Venexiana. I am glad I didn’t give up. The difference it makes!

Indeed. And this afternoon I listened to the CD of the Third Book with Compagnia, which was captivating... it must have something to do with singing in one's native language.

[DracoM]

Yes, DS, I have similar reservations about the ensemble who are performing many of the 'tracks' this week for COTW.
But as ever, thx for your assiduous headlining it all for us.

[Richard Tarleton]

How do people rate the Hilliards? To my ear their recording of Tenebrae, and sound generally, has an especial edge.... I have heard them live, in St Davids Cathedral, with that saxophone bloke....

[doversoul1]

How do people rate the Hilliards? To my ear their recording of Tenebrae, and sound generally, has an especial edge.... I have heard them live, in St Davids Cathedral, with that saxophone bloke....

I usually enjoy the Hilliards (preferably without the saxophone) but today, after La Venexiana, their Gesualdo sounded, to me, more like Byrd.