Gesualdo / Serafini / Bucci / Testolin / Vartolo - Madrigals Book 1 (CD)

All Music Guide

The first book of Don Carlo Gesualdo's madrigals is, unlike his later music, fairly conventional in its harmony and voice leading; it is therefore not the place to seek the extraordinary dissonances and sudden modulations that mark his subsequent books of madrigals and sacred works, or for which Gesualdo was especially admired by Stravinsky. However, listeners may still note the intense emotions which pour out of his text settings, his quick shifts of moods and some plangent crossrelations, though these are few and far between. The Concerto delle Dame di Ferrara seems to draw much more of its expression from the passionate words than from the music itself, and sings Gesualdo's earliest madrigals with the heightened expression that would be more characteristic of Books 36. This album was recorded in connection with the Festival Gesualdo OggiTracce 2004, and seems to be a first venture into Gesulado's music for Sergio Vartolo and this group. If further festivals and volumes are in the offing, it is perhaps understandable that Vartolo and the ensemble might have established such a pronounced Mannerist tone here, for the sake of consistency with recordings yet to come. But considered separately, these performances seem a little exaggerated and perhaps too dramatic for the mildness of the music. Brilliant's sound quality is superb.

- Blair Sanderson, All Music Guide