The performance choices for this album reflect that Gesualdo's Sacrae Cantiones were intended for private, elite performances, using varied combinations of voices and instruments rather than a uniform ensemble.
Compositional Technique
Gesualdo's compositional style in these sacred works became more compact, with less elaborate counterpoint and frequent use of chromatic effects and harmonic disruptions.
Cultural Impact
Igor Stravinsky was an early rediscoverer of Gesualdo's music, initially focusing on his lesser-known sacred works and even completing a missing part of his second book of Sacrarum Cantionum.
Composer Biography
Carlo Gesualdo da Venosa, the composer, was born on March 8, 1566, a fact only recently discovered.
Recording & Production
The recording of Gesualdo's Sacrarum Cantionum was based on the sole original copy of the work, preserved in the Biblioteca dei Girolamini in Naples.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Gesualdo's sacred works on this album reflect an "almost obsessive preoccupation with repentance and penance," with 11 of the 19 motets focusing on these themes.
Composer Biography
At 24, Gesualdo murdered his first wife, Maria d'Avalos, and her lover, Fabrizio Carafa, after catching them "in flagrante delicto."
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