Customer Reviews

Gesualdo: Madrigals / Galliards / Canzonettas / Psalms

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I beg to differ with the music fan from Indiana. First, let's start with the recording itself. The greater part of this recording was first issued in 1959 and was a trail-blazing effort by conductor Robert Craft to familiarize the listening public with Gesualdo's music. The historical nature of these performances more than justifies their reissue and Sony is to be congratulated, especially for the budget pricing. I did not hear anything "shrill" in the recording. The comments about chalkboards are nowhere to be found on the recording which I listened to, even with headphones and the volume level set high. Considering the fact that we are dealing with early-stereo recordings, this is a commendable engineering job. Now, back to the music. Craft was a student of and collaborator with Igor Stravinsky. Stravinsky's orchestration of Gesualdo's work encouraged Craft's interest. As Einstein noted in his classic "A Short History of Music," Gesualdo pushed chromaticism "to extremes of daring." When the music fan from Indiana complains that the "voices are frequently out of tune," he unjustifiably criticizes the performers who are singing Gesualdo's music as written. Granted, Craft's association with Stravinsky, who had by this time adopted Schoenberg's twelve-tone system, may have lead to an emphasis on the more dissonant aspect of Gesualdo's compositions. But this is the nature of artistic interpretation. I will agree that today there are many more recordings of Gesualdo's music and we a fortunate for this relative wealth. Nevertheless, this remains a fine, introductory survey of Gesualdo's music. My only complaint is that the liner notes do not contain the lyrics or their translations. The words add a great deal to the music's meaning.

My heart skipped a beat when I saw this recording was available on CD... I used to have it on vinyl 25 years ago when I was in college, and nearly wore it out. (In fact, I think I did replace it at least once!)

This is wonderful music, lovingly performed. I agree, as an earlier reviewer complains, that the singers are occasionally not in tune, but ... does one want to complain that Casals is not worth listening to because he couldn't play in tune? I think our ears in this day and age have become spoiled by over-edited and electronically perfected recordings. This recording is thrilling and delightful for precisely the reason that these great singers (look at the names!) got together to record some excellent 5-part vocal music, and did not (obviously) go back and re-record every little moment that didn't go smoothly. It feels much like attending a live performance.

The music of Gesualdo is extraordinary in it's own right, of course, with harmonies that presage Wagner a couple of hundred years ahead of schedule. This recording, with solo voices on each of the 5 parts, let's us really hear all the subtleties of the intricate voice leading that Gesualdo accomplishes.

Really happy to have found and purchased this reissue on Sony classical of "Gesualdo- highlights of his Madrigals, Galliards, Canzonettas". Features beautiful remastered performances in the early opera style(Opera was born in the mid to late Renaissance), with string instrumental interludes. May seem somewhat "sedate" to modern early music listeners, but I find it adds to it's charm- perfect background music for reading or relaxing. If you've ever seen "The Agony & The Estasy" (Michalangelo-Charlton Heston) similar music is performed during a banquet scene. 5 stars.

These singers come from the grand opera tradition and they do not seem to have been able to adapt their voices to the stylistic rigours needed to perform Gesualdo's works. The reviewers who stated that the tuning is poor, are correct. We actually listened to these first few bars with the score in hand, and it was totally obvious that the pitch, intonation and timing was very poor.

Yes, these performances are mostly _really_ out of tune even considering the chromatic adventures of Gesualdo. Frankly I'd rather hear other performances, though I haven't seen lots of other Gesualdo collections out there. This is a nice historical recording and has a broad range of Gesualdo's works, so it still might be worthwhile.

The chromatic nature of Gesualdo's music is even more shocking when performed in tune.

Luckily, I only blew about seven bucks on this CD. I can't figure out why this was reissued, although it probably has to do the the big names involved. The vocal performances are not only rough around the edges, but rather under-characterized. But they are spectacular compared with the string performances, which can be described as amateurish at best.

This recording is not a good introduction to Gesualdo's music. It's sound is shrill and the voices are frequently out of tune. Listening to this recording reminds one of fingernails scraping a chalkboard. Other, better recordings of Gesualdo's music are avilable.