Gesualdo & Maione: Tribulationem (Mottetti, madrigali e capricci)

Featuring

Mara Galassi
Jean-Marc Aymes
Concerto Soave
Carlo Gesualdo
Ascanio Mayone
Igor Stravinsky

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Composer's Artistic Vision

Gesualdo's music expresses mental disturbance through its discourse and extreme elaboration, speaking of love, desire, and death.

Composer Biography

Carlo Gesualdo, Prince of Venosa, was known for his passion for music, which led him to deep melancholy, and his jealousy, which drove him to murder.

Compositional Technique

Gesualdo's music is characterized by 'distortions' rather than just dissonances, pushing Renaissance counterpoint to its extreme limits.

Instruments

The 'cembalo cromatico' (chromatic harpsichord) was an experimental instrument used in Naples, for which some of the pieces by Ascanio Maione on this album were written.

Historical Context

Naples, where Gesualdo lived, was a vibrant musical center in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, with music practiced by all social classes, including the nobility.

Historical Context

Neapolitan nobles used musical practice to proudly display their excellence, as they were deprived of the right to bear arms after anti-Spanish revolts in 1547.

Interpretation

This recording uses a two-manual harpsichord with one manual tuned in sharps and the other in flats to accurately render the quarter-comma meantone temperament and its dizzying chromaticisms.