Gesualdo
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CARLO GESUALDO / BRETT DEAN / ERKKI-SVEN TUUR
Gesualdo
Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, Tõnu Kaljuste
[ ECM / CD ]
Release Date: Friday 20 November 2015
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This absorbing project finds Australian composer Brett Dean and Estonian composer Erkki-Sven Tüür drawing inspiration in very different ways from the music, life and times of Carlo Gesualdo and juxtaposes these reflections with Gesualdo's own music.
The music of Carlo Gesualdo, Prince of Venosa (1566-1613) has exerted a powerful influence on composers down the ages. His highly-charged, mannerist, idiosyncratic vocal music constitutes "a gallery of dramatically-lit portraits of human emotions with a heavy emphasis on the extremes of joy and despair" (to quote former Hilliard Ensemble singer Gordon Jones).
Brett Dean's 'Carlo' (composed 1997) begins with pure Gesualdo from the 6th Book of Madrigals, then gradually enters a very 20th century sound-world. Through use of both sampled and real-time voices as well as increasingly intense strings Dean paints an hallucinatory picture of the Prince of Verona's state of mind as he is driven toward his violent crimes of passion (he murdered his wife and her lover when he caught them in flagrante delicto) .
Erkki Sven Tüür's 'L'Ombra di Gesualdo' references the Gesualdo motet 'O crux benedicta' from the Cantiones sacrae, and Gesualdo's piece is also heard in an arrangement for strings by Tüür. The programme is completed by Tüür's 'Psalmody', which is without a Gesualdo-inspired subtext but it too cross-references older and newer music, within the narrower time-frame of Tüür's own oeuvre.
"This intelligently planned and superbly performed programme is a pure delight from first to last. Recording and presentation are up to ECM's best standards. The composers' notes express what they have to say with most welcome clarity and avoid sliding into the nebulous indulgences sometimes to be found in this label's liner-notes. Allow me however to mention that Tüür's Psalmody is scored for chorus and orchestra and not for string orchestra as stated on the inside cover of the booklet. This need not deter anyone from enjoying this well planned and superbly performed release. My Recording of the Month, for sure, and it will be high up in my Recordings of the Year." (MusicWeb Recording of the Month Nov 2015)
"This aptly angst-filled album conducted by Tõnu Kaljuste includes stylish string arrangements of Gesualdo's vocal music, plus related works by Brett Dean and Erkki-Sven Tüür...The Estonians capture the dark psyche [of the Dean] without overdoing it; most chilling is how they evoke glassy loneliness in hushed moments." (Guardian)
Tracks:
Carlo GESUALDO DA VENOSA (1566 - 1613)
Moro lasso (1611, orch. Tõnu Kaljuste) [4:33]
O crux benedicta (1603, orch. Erkki-Sven Tüür) [4:14]
Brett DEAN (b. 1961)
Carlo (1997) [20:37]
Erkki-Sven TÜÜR (b. 1959)
L'ombra della croce (2014) [6:57]
Psalmody (1993, rev. 2011) [22:08]
