Reviewed by Steven Whitehead

2016 was the 450th anniversary of the birth of Carlo Gesualdo, Prince of Verona and Count of Conza whose story would have kept the editors of the tabloid press very busy indeed, had they existed in the 16th century. Perhaps one day someone will use his compositions as the soundtrack for a play as 'Amadeus' did for Mozart or 'The Full Monteverdi' for, well Monteverdi (obviously). Like his contemporary Caravaggio (who gives us the cover art), Gesualdo had looked long - and perhaps longingly - into the darkness before turning to the light. This recording of Book I of Gesualdo's Sacred Songs For Five Voices is full of contrasts. Often the music sounds languid, reflective, almost to the point of making it onto a "classical chill-out" collection but when we read the translation of what is being so beautifully sung we meet a man of sorrows who is wrestling with sin and its consequences in his life. Surely if Gesualdo had been born in the 20th century he would have been singing the Blues, almost certainly on Death Row. Yet again Rory McCleery's Marian Consort sing supremely well and the recording, made in the Chapel of Merton College Oxford under producer Paul Baxter, is crystal clear. The music is at first listen Renaissance polyphony but with a dark side. Before his personal life came crashing down Gesualdo was a composer of madrigals but now he turns in on himself as he contemplates his sins and his need for a Saviour. Sometimes Gesualdo sounds hopeless - hopeless here in its theological sense - but he knows that after Good Friday Easter Sunday is coming and even someone as wretched as Carlo Gesualdo da Venosa can dare to hope.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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