| Label: PAN CLASSICS
Catalog: PC10229
Format: CD Il Complesso Barocco; Alan Curtis, directionGesualdo da Venosa (1566-1613)
Sesto libro de madrigali (1613) Carlo Gesualdo (1566-1613) is one of the most fascinating composers. It is hard to escape the temptation of seeing in his madrigals the tortured reflection of his psyche, beginning with the murder he committed in 1590, when he caught his first wife Maria d'Avalos in blatant adultery with her lover Fabrizio Carafa.
The madrigals of the fifth and sixth books are to Gesualdo what the black paintings are to Goya: works conceived in a state of solitude, with no limits on the artist's imagination, born in enclosed spaces and used to moving around in their gloom. Gesualdo's sixth book of madrigals contains some of the most extraordinary harmonic thinking in the history of Western music - it lives on the edge of modality, its chromatic lines forming chord progressions that still sound fresh and unpredictable to modern ears.
Il Complesso Barocco founded in 1992 by Alan Curtis is today one of the leading ensembles for the music of Handel and the Italian baroque. Their first CDs in the 90s - amongst them the legendary recording of Gesualdo's sixth madrigal book - together with appearances at major international festivals and concert series quickly had established their reputation for arresting and passionately expressive interpretations rich in fantasy, together with high standards of intonation and stylistic accuracy. The famous German film director Werner Herzog found their interpretation of Gesualdo's madrigals so convincing that he invited them to be the protagonists in his hour-long documentary on Gesualdo (awarded the Amsterdam Rembrandt prize and the Prix Italia).  Price: $27.98 |
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