Gesualdo: Responsoria La Compagnia del Madrigale & Giuseppe Maletto

• Carlo Gesualdo (1566-1613): Tenebrae Responsories for Maundy Thursday:
• 1 Responsory - 1st Nocturne: In monte Oliveti 04:47
• 2 Responsory - 1st Nocturne: Tristis est anima mea 05:47
• 3 Responsory - 1st Nocturne: Ecce vidimus eum 07:31
• Giovanni de Macque (1548-1614):
• 4 I' vo piangendo I miei passati tempi 05:00
• Carlo Gesualdo: Tenebrae Responsories for Maundy Thursday:
• 5 Responsory - 2nd Nocturne: Amicus meus osculi 04:22
• 6 Responsory - 2nd Nocturne: Judas mercator pessimus 02:35
• 7 Responsory - 2nd Nocturne: Unus ex discipulis meis 05:29
• Luzzasco Luzzaschi (1545-1607):
• 8 S'omai d'ogni su' errore 03:37
• Carlo Gesualdo: Tenebrae Responsories for Maundy Thursday:
• 9 Responsory - 3rd Nocturne: Eram quasi agnus innocens 06:03
• 10 Responsory - 3rd Nocturne: Una hora non potuistis 03:49
• 11 Responsory - 3rd Nocturne: Seniores populi consilium 05:30
• In te, Domine, speravi:
• 12 In te, Domine, speravi 03:51
• Tenebrae Responsories for Good Friday:
• 13 Responsory - 1st Nocturne: Omnes amici mei 04:37
• 14 Responsory - 1st Nocturne: Velum templi scissum est 04:43
• 15 Responsory - 1st Nocturne: Vinea mea electa, ego te plantavi 05:22
• Luzzasco Luzzaschi:
• 16 Quivi sospiri, pianti e alti guai 03:05
• Carlo Gesualdo: Tenebrae Responsories for Good Friday:
• 17 Responsory - 2nd Nocturne: Tanquam ad latronem 03:28
• 18 Responsory - 2nd Nocturne: Tenebrae factae sunt 05:17
• 19 Responsory - 2nd Nocturne: Animam meam dilectam 08:19
• Luca Marenzio (1553-1599):
• 20 E questo il legno che del sacro sangue 07:01
• Carlo Gesualdo: Tenebrae Responsories for Good Friday:
• 21 Responsory - 3rd Nocturne: Tradiderunt me 03:17
• 22 Responsory - 3rd Nocturne: Iesum tradidit impius 04:26
• 23 Responsory - 3rd Nocturne: Caligaverunt oculi mei 07:43
• Benedictus Dominus Deus Israel:
• 24 Benedictus Dominus Deus Israel 06:56
• Tenebrae Responsories for Holy Saturday:
• 25 Responsory - 1st Nocturne: Sicut ovis 03:48
• 26 Responsory - 1st Nocturne: Jerusalem, surge 03:50
• 27 Responsory - 1st Nocturne: Plange quasi virgo 06:19
• Sparge la morte al mio Signor nel viso:
• 28 Sparge la morte al mio Signor nel viso 05:23
• Tenebrae Responsories for Holy Saturday:
• 29 Responsory - 2nd Nocturne: Recessit pastor noster 03:44
• 30 Responsory - 2nd Nocturne: O vos omnes 03:41
• 31 Responsory - 2nd Nocturne: Ecce quomodo moritur iustus 05:56
• Pietro Vinci (1535-1584):
• 32 Le braccia aprendo in croce 04:22
• Carlo Gesualdo: Tenebrae Responsories for Holy Saturday:
• 33 Responsory - 3rd Nocturne: Astiterunt reges terrae 02:30
• 34 Responsory - 3rd Nocturne: Aestimatus sum 04:23
• 35 Responsory - 3rd Nocturne: Sepulto Domino 06:06
• Miserere mei, Deus:
• 36 Miserere mei, Deus 10:38
• Ne reminiscaris, Domine:
• 37 Ne reminiscaris, Domine 02:30
• Total Runtime 03:05:45

Info for Gesualdo: Responsoria

The Responsoria by Carlo Gesualdo, published in 1611, represent a remarkable emotional outpouring in sacred repertory from a composer who was living out his final years amidst melancholy thoughts and an increasingly precarious state of health. It was also significant that these Holy Week pieces should appear in the same year as the complex works in the Sixth Book of Madrigals: an association which La Compagnia del Madrigale are keen to make with their new recording of the Responsoria in a striking new release from Glossa. Having already responded to the stylistic subjectiveness of the madrigals the highly-skilled a cappella vocal ensemble (which includes singers of the calibre and experience of Giuseppe Maletto, Daniele Carnovich or Rossana Bertini) turns its attention to subject matter covering torment, suffering, blood and death.

Over three CDs Gesualdo’s creative musical response to the Passion of Christ is interspersed with spiritual madrigals from some of his best-known contemporaries (Luzzaschi, Marenzio, de Macque and Vinci), whose religious texts further underline the madrigalesque nature of the Responsoria. Also included are two comparative rarities from Gesualdo’s sacred output, In te Domine speravi and Ne reminiscaris, Domine.

Once again, Marco Bizzarini supplies a fascinating booklet essay which places Gesualdo’s music in a realistic rather than “hysterical” context, buttressing the singers’ complete control of the emotional charge of this late masterpiece from the Prince of Venosa.

“the group's meticulous attention to every verbal nuance and to all the chromatic inflections and dissonant clashes in Gesualdo's often tortured harmonies makes its point. It's wonderfully accomplished singing, very unlike any other performance of these strangely compelling pieces that I've heard, and thought-provoking at the same time.” (The Guardian)

“This is devotional music of mesmerising beauty, the state-of-the-art performances interspersed with spiritual madrigals by Luzzaschi, Marenzio and Vinci...This intense, boldly chromatic music of lamentation is rarely heard Eastertide material, especially programmed as comprehensively as here by the six elite singers.” (Sunday Times)

“This new recording...surpasses all others. The singers not only reveal the depths of Gesualdo's emotional understanding, but also his formal, harmonic and textural control...La Compagnia del Madrigale are sensitive to every word of the text as well as to every note of the music. All in all, a superb recital.” (BBC Music Magazine)

La Compagnia del Madrigale
Giuseppe Maletto, direction

La Compagnia del Madrigale
Founded only recently, La Compagnia del Madrigale can already be considered as the pre-eminent madrigal ensemble on today’s international early music scene. The choice of the group’s name was inspired by the long-standing friendship and shared experiences of its singers from across two decades of performing together throughout the world. The founding members of the ensemble, Rossana Bertini, Giuseppe Maletto and Daniele Carnovich, while cultivating prestigious individual careers, have worked side by side for over 20 years, and their collective understanding as madrigalists has played a fundamental role in bringing an undisputed high level of artistry to groups such as Concerto Italiano and La Venexiana.

Cantica Symphonia
For over a decade Cantica Symphonia has dedicated itself to the recovery and performance of medieval and renaissance polyphony. Founded in 1995 by Giuseppe Maletto and Svetlana Fomina, the group is now one of the most highly regarded interpreters in its field. Cantica Symphonia’s unique style, fruit of intensive analysis of original sources, is characterized by an ability to bring out the structural and expressive richness of its repertoire. The group’s approach is one of particular care and attention to the interaction between voices and instruments, consolidating the collective experience of its members who individually collaborate with the most highly affirmed groups of today’s international Early Music scene. The fulcrum of the group’s activity has always been the music of Guillaume Dufay, the first great musician of the “modern” era whose works enlightened his times and guided western music through the travailed passage from medieval to renaissance.

Since 2005 Cantica Symphonia has been recording exclusively for Glossa and has released a series of three CDs dedicated to the music of Dufay: two volumes of motets (Quadrivium and Supremum est mortalibus bonum) and a companion disc of chansons (Tempio dell’Onore e delle Vertù). All have received strong critical acclaim.

The ensemble’s concert performances have been met with the same warm consensus as its recording projects. Cantica Symphonia has concertized throughout Italy, France, Belgium, Holland, Switzerland, Estonia, and Slovenia and appears regularly in prestigious festivals: Rencontres de Musique Médiévale du Thoronet, the Festival van Vlaanderen in Brugge and Antwerp, the Tage Alter Musik in Regensburg, Concerts de St. Germain in Geneva, Settembre Musica and Unione Musicale in Torino.

Composers Filippo Del Corno, Carlo Galante and Yakov Gubanov have written music expressly for Cantica Symphonia. Prior to preparing a new large-scale project Cantica Symphonia have recorded an intimate, voices-only selection of motets and laude inspired by the Virgin Mary entitled Stella del nostro mar.

Giuseppe Maletto
engages in an intense activity as a professional singer, dedicating himself principally to medieval and renaissance polyphony and to the music of Claudio Monteverdi. La Venexiana, La Petite Bande, Hespèrion XXI, Ensemble Gilles Binchois, Concerto Italiano, and Mala Punica are only a few of the prestigious groups with which he collaborates, participating in numerous concert tours in Europe, the United States, Israel, Japan, and Argentina. He has recorded over 40 CDs, several of which have received important awards, such as the Deutscher Schallplattenpreis, Prix Cecilia, Diapason d’Or de l’Année, the Premio Cini and the Gramophone Award.

In addition to Cantica Symphonia’s specialization in medieval and renaissance repertoire Maletto has also led performances of Monteverdi’s 1610 Vespers and the Missa In illo tempore, Carissimi’s Jephté, Odes and Anthems by Purcell, and several of Bach’s Cantatas. He has taught courses at the Scuola di Alto Perfezionamento Musicale in Saluzzo (Italy), at the Corso Internazionale di Musica Antica in Polizzi Generosa (Italy), and has held a seminar on the interpretation of the music of Monteverdi at the Novosibirsk Conservatory (Russia).

This album contains no booklet.