Carlo Gesualdo

Review: If you like The King's Singers, you'll love this CD! Gesualdo: Tenebrae Responsories for Maundy Thursday offers a small slice from the liturgy used for Holy Week. All tracks are superbly performed. The voices weave together to form a solid fabric of stunning polyphony. The responsories, here, are divided into three sets beginning with lessons from the Lamentations of Jeremiah. Gesualdo, an eccentric Italian prince and one of the Renaissance's more innovative composers, is best remembered for killing his wife and her lover while they were in bed together. His guilt over this shocking and passionate act is said to be mirrored in his music with its chromatic and often indulgent lines. The music is liturgical in nature, but this recording can be appreciated inside and out of the sanctuary.

Songlist: Lectio 1, Responsories from 1st Nocturn:, - In Monte Oliveti, - Tristis est anima mea, - Ecce vidimus eum, Lectio 2, Responsories from 2nd Nocturn:, - Amicus meus osculi, - Judas mercator pessimus, - Unus ex discipulis meis, Lectio 3, Responsories from 3rd Nocturn:, - Eram quasi agnus innocens, - Une hora non potuistis, - Seniores populi consilium, Benedictus, Christus factus est

7104c | 1 CD $16.98 Early Music CDs

Review: Now enjoying cult status since her 're-discovery' 25 years ago, Hildegard von Bingen, the tenth child of an aristocratic family, entered a convent at the age of eight and spent the remainder of her eighty years as a nun as well as a mystic, the latter half as abbess of her own convent. Hildegard's great musico-poetic collection was completed around the year 1150. Symphonia armonie celestium revelationum (Symphony of the Harmony of Heavenly Revelations) is a collection of 77 songs and one music drama. The subjects of these songs are an idiosyncratic collection of individuals and groups - the pieces included on this recording are variously addressed to the Creator, the Redeemer, the Blessed Virgin Mary, St John the Evangelist, Apostles, Confessors, and Martyrs.

Songlist: O cohors milite floris, O successores fortissimi leonis, O vos imitatores excelse, O dulcis electe, O victoriosissimi triumphatores, O cruor sanguinis, O vis aeternitatis, O splendidissima gemma

8912c | 1 CD $9.95 Early Music CDs

Review: Without doubt the music written by the prince of Verona is some of the most macabre yet outlandishly fantastic music ever written. The famous unprepared chromatic side steps remain decidedly unnerving even to a devoted Second Viennese School. The effect of the chromatic spirals is often vertigo inducing but also deeply moving and ultimately awe-inspiring. This is truly sublime music by a neglected genius. The performances here are amongst the very best available of Gesualdo's music - at any price. This would be a perfect place to start exploring this bizarre but inspired musical universe.

Songlist: Illumina faciem tuam, Deus refugium et virtus, Exaudi Deus deprecationem meam, Tribulationem et dolorem, Tribularer si nescirem, Precibus et meritis beatae Mariae, O Crux benedicta, O vos omnes, Dignare me laudare te, Maria mater gratiae, Laboravi in gemitu meo, Ave dulcissima Maria, Domine ne despicias, Peccantem me quotidie, Sancti Spiritus Domine, Hei mihi Domine, Venit lumen tuum Jerusalem, Reminiscere miserationum tuarum, Ave Regina coelorum

8752c | 1 CD $9.95 Early Music CDs