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I warmly welcome this new addition to our collective understanding of the Prince of Venosa. No longer headlining as a murderous madrigalist, recent recordings have drawn attention to the intricacies of his text-setting, from the ‘mannerist’ approach of Concerto Italiano to the intimate, quicksilver strains of Les Arts Florissants. Yet here, Philippe Herreweghe’s relentlessly perfect Collegium Vocale Gent take a slightly different path by evoking a somewhat churchy sound through the use of single voices and deliciously subtle lute in ambient surroundings. Broadly speaking, his singers lean into dissonance without a hint of surprise and thus Gesualdo’s harmonic eccentricities are soothed by understatement and impeccable ensemble singing.
Opening with the sublime ‘Luci serene e chiare’, these singers almost shimmer on their first line (‘Eyes placid and pale’) and find a sensuality and resignation in the last two lines (‘A soul, ablaze and bleeding, destroys itself without suffering and dies without languishing’), ending with a skilfully managed sighing cadence. Book 4 has long been seen as the start of a new style, one exploring and exploiting contradictions and opposites. ‘Moro, e mentre sospiro’ is a good example with its sequence of sighs (‘I die, and as I expire …’). I once praised Les Arts Florissants’ lack of frenetic sheen but with Herreweghe’s light touch his emphasis tilts away from the poem’s sighing towards its flying away. My favourites by far are the strident homophonic passages of the serpent in ‘Se chiudete nel core’, which contrasts vividly with Cupid’s delicious presence, and the fluttering sopranos in ‘Mentre gira costei’. Yet at times I wonder if the sound is occasionally blanched of the colour and warmth that fuel Gesualdo’s opposites in other interpretations. I’m an enormous admirer of Herreweghe’s careful, thoughtful work but in this fourth book I long for him to live a little more dangerously. Overall, I still find Les Arts Florissants more engaging, but this new album is so gorgeous I know I will return to it often.
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