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The singers of Les Arts Florissants made their names in French Baroque opera, but their recordings of Carlo Gesualdo under director and tenor Paul Agnew have been uniformly successful. Their intense readings of the composer's secular madrigals are very strong but do not fundamentally depart from earlier performance traditions. The situation is different with the Tenebrae Responsories, which have often, as sacred works, been performed by choirs. Agnew argues that the likely candidates for having performed them this way would not have been up to the technical challenges and that these works were essentially sacred madrigals performed in specialized spaces by a one-to-a-part group similar to those that sang the secular pieces. No doubt, this idea is subject to debate, but the musical results here are impressive. These are late pieces, akin to Gesualdo's highly experimental last two books of madrigals. They don't have quite the radical harmonies of those pieces, but in a sacred context, they must have sounded plenty startling, and Les Arts Florissants puts this across with haunting effect. The sound from the Abbatiale d'Ambronay matches perfectly what Agnew had in mind, and the end result is a superb conclusion to the group's series. This release made classical best-seller charts in early 2023.
© James Manheim /TiVo
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Tenebræ Responsoria, Feria Quinta (Carlo Gesualdo)
Les Arts Florissants, Choir, MainArtist - Carlo Gesualdo, Composer
2023 Les Arts Florissants / harmonia mundi 2023 Les Arts Florissants / harmonia mundi
Les Arts Florissants, Choir, MainArtist - Carlo Gesualdo, Composer
2023 Les Arts Florissants / harmonia mundi 2023 Les Arts Florissants / harmonia mundi
Les Arts Florissants, Choir, MainArtist - Carlo Gesualdo, Composer
2023 Les Arts Florissants / harmonia mundi 2023 Les Arts Florissants / harmonia mundi
Les Arts Florissants, Choir, MainArtist - Carlo Gesualdo, Composer
2023 Les Arts Florissants / harmonia mundi 2023 Les Arts Florissants / harmonia mundi
Les Arts Florissants, Choir, MainArtist - Carlo Gesualdo, Composer
2023 Les Arts Florissants / harmonia mundi 2023 Les Arts Florissants / harmonia mundi
Les Arts Florissants, Choir, MainArtist - Carlo Gesualdo, Composer
2023 Les Arts Florissants / harmonia mundi 2023 Les Arts Florissants / harmonia mundi
Les Arts Florissants, Choir, MainArtist - Carlo Gesualdo, Composer
2023 Les Arts Florissants / harmonia mundi 2023 Les Arts Florissants / harmonia mundi
Les Arts Florissants, Choir, MainArtist - Carlo Gesualdo, Composer
2023 Les Arts Florissants / harmonia mundi 2023 Les Arts Florissants / harmonia mundi
Paul Agnew, MainArtist, TenorSolo - Les Arts Florissants, Choir, MainArtist - Carlo Gesualdo, Composer
2023 Les Arts Florissants / harmonia mundi 2023 Les Arts Florissants / harmonia mundi
Les Arts Florissants, Choir, MainArtist - Carlo Gesualdo, Composer
2023 Les Arts Florissants / harmonia mundi 2023 Les Arts Florissants / harmonia mundi
Les Arts Florissants, Choir, MainArtist - Carlo Gesualdo, Composer - Edward Grint, MainArtist, BassVocals
2023 Les Arts Florissants / harmonia mundi 2023 Les Arts Florissants / harmonia mundi
Les Arts Florissants, Choir, MainArtist - Carlo Gesualdo, Composer
2023 Les Arts Florissants / harmonia mundi 2023 Les Arts Florissants / harmonia mundi
Les Arts Florissants, Choir, MainArtist - Carlo Gesualdo, Composer - Sean Clayton, MainArtist, TenorSolo
2023 Les Arts Florissants / harmonia mundi 2023 Les Arts Florissants / harmonia mundi
Les Arts Florissants, Choir, MainArtist - Carlo Gesualdo, Composer
2023 Les Arts Florissants / harmonia mundi 2023 Les Arts Florissants / harmonia mundi
Les Arts Florissants, Choir, MainArtist - Carlo Gesualdo, Composer
2023 Les Arts Florissants / harmonia mundi 2023 Les Arts Florissants / harmonia mundi
Les Arts Florissants, Choir, MainArtist - Carlo Gesualdo, Composer - Edward Grint, MainArtist, BassVocals
2023 Les Arts Florissants / harmonia mundi 2023 Les Arts Florissants / harmonia mundi
Les Arts Florissants, Choir, MainArtist - Carlo Gesualdo, Composer
2023 Les Arts Florissants / harmonia mundi 2023 Les Arts Florissants / harmonia mundi
Paul Agnew, MainArtist, TenorSolo - Les Arts Florissants, Choir, MainArtist - Carlo Gesualdo, Composer
2023 Les Arts Florissants / harmonia mundi 2023 Les Arts Florissants / harmonia mundi
Les Arts Florissants, Choir, MainArtist - Carlo Gesualdo, Composer
2023 Les Arts Florissants / harmonia mundi 2023 Les Arts Florissants / harmonia mundi
Les Arts Florissants, Choir, MainArtist - Carlo Gesualdo, Composer - Sean Clayton, MainArtist, TenorSolo
2023 Les Arts Florissants / harmonia mundi 2023 Les Arts Florissants / harmonia mundi
Les Arts Florissants, Choir, MainArtist - Carlo Gesualdo, Composer
2023 Les Arts Florissants / harmonia mundi 2023 Les Arts Florissants / harmonia mundi
Les Arts Florissants, Choir, MainArtist - Carlo Gesualdo, Composer
2023 Les Arts Florissants / harmonia mundi 2023 Les Arts Florissants / harmonia mundi
Les Arts Florissants, Choir, MainArtist - Carlo Gesualdo, Composer
2023 Les Arts Florissants / harmonia mundi 2023 Les Arts Florissants / harmonia mundi
Album Description
The singers of Les Arts Florissants made their names in French Baroque opera, but their recordings of Carlo Gesualdo under director and tenor Paul Agnew have been uniformly successful. Their intense readings of the composer's secular madrigals are very strong but do not fundamentally depart from earlier performance traditions. The situation is different with the Tenebrae Responsories, which have often, as sacred works, been performed by choirs. Agnew argues that the likely candidates for having performed them this way would not have been up to the technical challenges and that these works were essentially sacred madrigals performed in specialized spaces by a one-to-a-part group similar to those that sang the secular pieces. No doubt, this idea is subject to debate, but the musical results here are impressive. These are late pieces, akin to Gesualdo's highly experimental last two books of madrigals. They don't have quite the radical harmonies of those pieces, but in a sacred context, they must have sounded plenty startling, and Les Arts Florissants puts this across with haunting effect. The sound from the Abbatiale d'Ambronay matches perfectly what Agnew had in mind, and the end result is a superb conclusion to the group's series. This release made classical best-seller charts in early 2023.
© James Manheim /TiVo
About the album
- 1 disc(s) - 23 track(s)
- Total length: 01:16:00
- Main artists: Les Arts Florissants Paul Agnew
- Composer: Carlo Gesualdo
- Label: harmonia mundi
- Genre: Classical Sacred Vocal Music
-
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo
2023 Les Arts Florissants / harmonia mundi 2023 Les Arts Florissants / harmonia mundi
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