Gesualdo: Madrigaux (Madrigals)

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
In music circles, the name Carlo Gesualdo is usually followed by a strange look, knowing smile, or whimsical comment. The 16th-century Italian composer was nothing if not colorful, and his startlingly unusual music reflects an avant-garde approach to just about all aspects of his craft. Apart from his music, Gesualdo, Prince of Verona, was famously known for murdering his adulterous wife. In his music, especially his madrigals, he seemed to pay no attention to convention, or even to accepted rules of harmony and melodic structure. As heard in the works on this disc, nothing is predictable, from sudden, surprising leaps, to disjointed melodies, jerky rhythms, and occasionally shocking harmonic shifts. Of course, music of this nature is difficult to sing, which is why you rarely hear these works in concert or on recordings. We are fortunate to have such skilled and imaginative interpreters as Les Arts Florissants, who present these marvelous pieces with real artistic flair and a true sense of fun. --David Vernier --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Gesualdo: Madrigaux (Madrigals), Music, Carlo Gesualdo, William Christie, Gérard Lesne, Jean-Paul Fouchécourt, Les Arts Florissants, Canzona for Keyboard, Classical, Classical Composers, Classical Music, Keyboard, Madrigal, Vocal

Average customer rating:

he was a wild one

Just a note!

Gesualdo at his finest!

Unexpected Treat

Gesualdo: Madrigaux (Madrigals)
Carlo Gesualdo , William Christie , Gérard Lesne , Jean-Paul Fouchécourt , and Les Arts Florissants
Manufacturer: Harmonia Mundi Fr.
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

All Works by Gesualdo | Gesualdo, Carlo | ( G ) | Featured Composers, A-Z | Classical | Styles | Music
Canzones | Sonatas | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music
Christie, William | ( C ) | Featured Performers, A-Z | Classical | Styles | Music
General | Classical | Styles | Music
Madrigals | Songs & Lieder | Vocal Non-Opera | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music
Classical | Imports | Stores | Music
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Release Date: 1992-02-12

Tracks:

Ahi, Disperata Vita
Sospirava Il Mio Core
O Malnati Messaggi
Non T'amo, O Voce Ingrata
Canzon Francese Del Principe
Luci Serene E Chiare
Sparge La Morte Al Mio Signor
Arde Il Mio Cor
Io Tacero-Invan Dunque
Occhi Del Mio Cor Vita
Merce Grido Piangendo
Asciugate I Begli Occhi
Correte, Amanti
Se La Mia Morte Brami
Io Parto
Ardita Zanzaretta
Ardo, Per Te, Mio Bene

Amazon.com

In music circles, the name Carlo Gesualdo is usually followed by a strange look, knowing smile, or whimsical comment. The 16th-century Italian composer was nothing if not colorful, and his startlingly unusual music reflects an avant-garde approach to just about all aspects of his craft. Apart from his music, Gesualdo, Prince of Verona, was famously known for murdering his adulterous wife. In his music, especially his madrigals, he seemed to pay no attention to convention, or even to accepted rules of harmony and melodic structure. As heard in the works on this disc, nothing is predictable, from sudden, surprising leaps, to disjointed melodies, jerky rhythms, and occasionally shocking harmonic shifts. Of course, music of this nature is difficult to sing, which is why you rarely hear these works in concert or on recordings. We are fortunate to have such skilled and imaginative interpreters as Les Arts Florissants, who present these marvelous pieces with real artistic flair and a true sense of fun. --David Vernier

Customer Reviews:

he was a wild one.......2002-05-19

Around the Baroque period in the 17th century, there was some unsurety whether music was tending from modality to tonality or atonality. Gesualdo was the chief atonal composer of the period. He once caught his wife & her lover in bed & responded by hacking them both to pieces with an ax. Afterwards, he felt such immense guilt that he spent the rest of his life having his servants torture him every morning before he would compose this weird music. For the unique, extreme eccentricity of his life & his art, 5 stars, but minus one because I don't think this cd offers quite the best selection. It's great, but see what else you can find first.

Just a note!.......2002-02-14

I can't imagine how one of the reviewers could describe this music as "This is grand and very comfortable music. We easily converse or work while it plays, as charming as a court musician in the next room. It is an unexpected treat" Noone that knows Gesulado's musiccould ever describe it in such terms.

Gesualdo at his finest!.......2002-02-14

In Renaissance music, the madrigals of Gesualdo are a universe unto themselves. As a form, the madrigal represents a huge body of literature, much of which is rather light and entertaining. Not Gesualdo, if there was ever a dramatic madrigal-opera style, this is it. Every nuance of emotion is conveyed with beautifully startling and sudden expressionistic harmonic changes. The music seems to want to break out of itself as it reaches across centuries to find resonance in our hearts. The chromaticisms are exquisitely beautiful. You just have to let your ear adjust to it. Think expressionistic romanticism and you might get close to the feeling of this music.

Gesualdo's music is fiendishly difficult to sing. The harmonies and chromaticisms offer little for the singer to hang on to. In most cases, one is just satisfied with getting through this stuff and compared with what this group does, that is all you get from other ensembles. Here you have the play of dissonant suspensions, the sudden dynamic changes on a single note, the startling break-away rhythms and tempos and overall elasticity that is vitally necessary to make this music sound.

Forget about the fact that Gesualdo is the only composer in history to have been a nurder. The true story of the murder of his beautiful but faithless young wife and her lover while they were making love in bed. A crime which in Renaissance Italy, at those times, was excusable. Forget that Gesualdo is often depicted and characerized as spending the rest of his life in a dark castle cell, doing penitance and writing his twisted almost unsingable madrigals. Yes you will hear a full share of anguish and "morire's" symbolising his yearning to die for love.

What this superb ensemble delivers is a Gesualdo who in the end is not simply interesting, anguished or penitential but exquisitely beautiful as a fine Carravagio painting or michelangelo sculpture of the four 'prigione' (prisoners).

Unexpected Treat.......2000-08-13

Aaron Copland, in his "What to Listen For in Music", recommended that we hear Gesualdo's "Madrigaux", and so I bought it. The performance and the recording are technically flawless. The music itself has diverse tempos and styles, such as the lamenting "Non t'amo..." and the harp instrumental "Canzon francese...". This is grand and very comfortable music. We easily converse or work while it plays, as charming as a court musician in the next room. It is an unexpected treat.

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