Gesualdo: Tenebrae Responsories; Benedictus; Miserere [Import]

Carlo Gesualdo (Composer), A Sei Voci (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: A Sei Voci
• Composer: Carlo Gesualdo
• Audio CD (May 22, 2007)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 2
• Format: Import
• Label: Apex/Warner Classics UK
• ASIN: B000MM0CB8
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #77,711 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #87 in Music > Classical > Historical Periods > Renaissance (c.1450-1600) > Composers

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. Responsories (9) for Maundy Thursday, for 6 voices, Feria 5: Nocturnus 1. 1. In monte Oliveti oravit ad Patrem

2. Responsories (9) for Maundy Thursday, for 6 voices, Feria 5: Nocturnus 1. 2. Tristis est anima mea

3. Responsories (9) for Maundy Thursday, for 6 voices, Feria 5: Nocturnus 1. 3. Ecce vidimus eum

4. Responsories (9) for Maundy Thursday, for 6 voices, Feria 5: Nocturnus 2. 4. Amicus meus osculi me tradidit

5. Responsories (9) for Maundy Thursday, for 6 voices, Feria 5: Nocturnus 2. 5. Juda mercator pessimus osculo petiit

6. Responsories (9) for Maundy Thursday, for 6 voices, Feria 5: Nocturnus 2. 6. Unus ex Discipulis

7. Responsories (9) for Maundy Thursday, for 6 voices, Feria 5: Nocturnus 3. 7. Eram quasi agnus innocens

8. Responsories (9) for Maundy Thursday, for 6 voices, Feria 5: Nocturnus 3. 8. Una hora non potuistis vigilare mecum

9. Responsories (9) for Maundy Thursday, for 6 voices, Feria 5: Nocturnus 3. 9. Seniores populi consilium fecerunt

10. Miserere Mei, Deus, motet for 6 voices, W. 7/92

See all 13 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. Responsories (9) for Good Friday, for 6 voices, Feria 6: Nocturnus 2. 4. Tanquam ad latronem existis cum gladiis et fustibus

2. Responsories (9) for Good Friday, for 6 voices, Feria 6: Nocturnus 2. 5. Tenebrae factae sunt, dum crucifixissent Jesum Judaei

3. Responsories (9) for Good Friday, for 6 voices, Feria 6: Nocturnus 2. 6. Animam meam dilectam tradidi in manus iniquorum

4. Responsories (9) for Good Friday, for 6 voices, Feria 6: Nocturnus 3. 7. Tradiderunt me in manus impiorum

5. Responsories (9) for Good Friday, for 6 voices, Feria 6: Nocturnus 3. 8. Jesum traditit impius summis principibus

6. Responsories (9) for Good Friday, for 6 voices, Feria 6: Nocturnus 3. 9. Caligaverunt oculi mei fletu meo

7. Benedictus Dominus Deus Israel, motet for 6 voices, W. 7/93

8. Responsories (9) for Holy Saturday, for 6 voices: Nocturnus 1. 1. Sicut ovis ad occisionem ductus est

9. Responsories (9) for Holy Saturday, for 6 voices: Nocturnus 1. 2. Jerusalem, surge

10. Responsories (9) for Holy Saturday, for 6 voices: Nocturnus 1. 3. Plange quasi virgo plebs mea

See all 16 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Shadow Voices, July 1, 2009

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Giordano Bruno (Wherever I am, I am.) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Gesualdo: Tenebrae Responsories; Benedictus; Miserere (Audio CD)

"A Sei Voci" is one of the more eccentric ensembles in 'Early Music' today. Eccentricity might be taken for adventuresomeness, but not all of their experiments succeed. They've recorded the fabulous 'Miserere' by Gregorio Allegri using a written-out set of ornaments that remind me of the toys called 'transformers.' They produced two CDs of Josquin masses using a choir of children to sing the superius, with perhaps interesting but musically incoherent results.

It might seem that eccentricity would suit the music of Carlo Gesualdo (1561-1613), but in my opinion, the composer prince built in enough expressive originality without mandating any extra eccentricity from mere performers. The 'Six Voices' have chosen to sing these Tenebrae Responsories with a thin, slightly withheld "head voice" throughout. The effect, to my ears, is expressively penitential some of the time, but also stifled much of the time. Such a timbre would seem more suitable if Gesualdo had been French rather than Italian. If the six men sang this way in a side-chapel of a cathedral, without mikes, they'd be heard only by each other.

A more objective criticism is that the tuning is not flawless. Gesualdo is notoriously hard to sing, with all his oddly prepared dissonances and his strange chromaticism. However, the chromatics only achieve poignancy when the consonances are perfect. If you listen carefully to the chords with which the polyphony resolves, at the ends of sections, you'll hear what I mean even if you are not yourself a singer. Those chords are preponderantly simple triadic majors or minors, and A Sei Voci often fails to 'nail' them.

There are virtues to this performance, nevertheless. The ensemble is well-balanced and transparent enough to reveal the inner voices at all times. The rhythmic interpretation is excellent. I can imagine finding this performance 'spiritually' uplifting and meditative.

Of all Gesualdo's works, the Tenebrae Responsoria have been most often recorded, and because they are so musically curious, every performance sounds wildly different. The Hilliard Ensemble recorded all three evenings' Responses - Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday -as A Sei Voci has done. Andrew Parrot and the Taverner Consort have recorded the Responses for Good Friday, in the context of the plainchant antiphons, psalms and lectios, giving a sounder idea of what this music was about and how it might have been heard in 1611. Philippe Herreweghe and the Ensemble Vocal Européen have recorded just the responsories for Sabbato Sancto, but have included four very plangent motets by Gesualdo, and an impressive 'Requiem' by the modern composer Sandro Gorli (b. 1948). For one reason or another, I find myself more likely to listen to any of those three recordings than to the CDs by A Sei Voci.