Carlo Gesualdo: Quinto Libro di Madrigali (CD) 【ECM】

An aristocrat who forgedan idiosyncratic style of musical expression, Don Carlo Gesualdo, Prince of Venosa, was one of those composers inmusic history who can truly be described as beingahead 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 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 – display 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”.

The Hilliard Ensemble
Monika Mauch - soprano
David James - countertenor
David Gould - countertenor
Rogers Covey-Crump - tenor
Steven Harrold - tenor
Gordon Jones - baritone

【曲目】
01. Gioite voi col canto
02. S'io non miro non moro
03. Itene, o miei sospiri
04. Dolcissima mia vita
05. O dolorosa gioia
06. Qual fora, donna
07. Felicissimo sonno
08. Se vi duol il mio duolo
09. 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

Total duration: 55:16

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編號：ECM2175
條碼：0028947647553