Gesualdo da Venosa (1566-1613)
Quinto Libro di Madrigali

01 Gioite voi col canto
02 S’io non miro non moro
03 Itene, o miei sospiri
04 Dolcissima mia vita
05 O dolorosa gioia
06 Qual fora, donna
07 Felicissimo sonno
08 Se vi duol il mio duolo
09 Occhi del mio cor vita
10 Languisce al fin
11 Mercè grido piangendo
12 O voi, troppo felici
13 Correte, amanti, a prova
14 Asciugate i begli occhi
15 Tu m’uccidi, o crudele
16 Deh, coprite il bel seno
17 Poichè l’avida sete
18 O tenebroso giorno
19 Se tu fuggi, io non resto
20 T’amo, mia vita

The Italian ensemble, La Venexiana, renowned for their ongoing recording project of Monteverdi’s madrigals, present the first issue of another groundbreaking cycle: the Gesualdo Edition. This is a direct consequence of the many enthusiastic letters and emails received at Glossa regarding the need for a reference recording of the Prince of Venosa’s madrigalistic output. La Venexiana now expect to complete Monteverdi by 2006 and Gesualdo by 2008.

Carlo Gesualdo 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 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 fetters on the artist’s imagination, born in enclosed spaces and used to moving around in their gloom. It is a music fitting to resonate in remote and unusual places. There remains, of course, the possibility of listening to it in concert but then, in order to liberate all its troubling charge, its sounds should be heard through a gate or a door, with the musicians singing out of sight in a different room. Perhaps the disc allows for a reenactment of these conditions. Try it out for yourselves...