Sacrae cantiones

"Among the best young vocal ensembles, specialising in both early and contemporary music, the Marian Consort's latest recording features Book I (1603) of Gesualdo's Sacrae Cantiones. The 19 motets for five voices are meditations on penitence and suffering, which Gesualdo depicts in music of harmonic adventure and imaginative word painting ... The consort, under the direction of countertenor Rory McCleery, sings with cool beauty and fervent expression".

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"Highly-charged dissonances, strange harmonic progressions paint words that implore and plead and cry out for mercy. Though they are as dramatic as Gesualdo's madrigals, these sacred works inhabit a very different world, which the ensemble enhanced with its ethereal sound. The voices float in a transparent acoustic ... These are haunting accounts".

"Gesualdo's two volumes of Sacred Songs published in 1603 are the least recorded of his works ... What is distinctive about this new recording is its use of instruments alongside the voices ... not strictly liturgical ... In any case the combined sounds do lend a certain celebratory air to the works ... though the instrumentation drowns out the words ... There are good singers but they hardly get a chance".

"In einigen Motetten lässt er [Da Col] Instrumente teils colla parte mitlaufen, teils die Vokalpartien allein spielen; andere Stücke führt er chorisch a cappella auf ... All diese Entscheidungen sind zweifellos gut begründet und sollen beim Hören einen gewissen Abwechslungsreichtum bewirken. Indes klingt ... Ensembles Odhecaton über weite Strecken eher bemüht: Vor allem die Kontratenöre haben hörbare Probleme".

"Empfehlungen des Monats".