Gesualdo - Madrigals, Book 6
Cycle Gesualdo
Ensemble
Les Arts Florissants
Musical Direction and tenor
Cast
Miriam ALLAN, soprano
Hannah MORRISON, soprano
Mélodie RUVIO, contralto
Sean CLAYTON, tenor
Edward GRINT, bass
Éditions musicales :
Les Arts Florissants (Pascal Duc)
"Anyone who has had the good fortune to attend one of these evenings (...) will be able to guess that in this last performance, all the praises expressed in the previous ones must be repeated by force: prodigious intonation, impeccable impassivity and, above all, passion, a lot of passion." Scherzo (Spain)
"This monumental investment has resulted in exemplary performances. Very few ensembles in the world can reach the level of musical excellence that the French ensemble has achieved in this complex and fascinating music. (...) The end of a cycle that will long remain in our memories." Ritmo (Spain)
Paul Agnew and his team of singers have devoted three seasons to the complete madrigals of one of the most romantic composers in the history of music: Carlo Gesualdo. The 2020 - 2021 season will see the very end of the cycle with, in February, this sixth and final book of the cycle.
"We will put the madrigals in context by associating them with the music of his contemporaries, tracing the emergence of the chromatic madrigal and, to some extent, trying to understand how Gesualdo finally came to write, at the very end of his life, music that today continues to shock and fascinate. Sometimes perceived as a madman who had completely lost his mind, Gesualdo was in fact an artist who followed his own creative logic and helped to push the possibilities of musical expression to its extreme limits.
Count Gesualdo is at the same time a violent self-proclaimed murderer, a devout and repentant Christian, a member of the nobility and a published composer. He is therefore a complex and contradictory figure, who plays a key role in the pivotal period of the early 17th century: his contribution is fundamental in the affirmation of a new, dramatic and modern music - the "Seconda prattica".
Paul Agnew
This concert is part of a three-season series of Gesualdo's madrigals performed by Les Arts Florissants and Paul Agnew, in partnership with the Cité de la musique - Philharmonie de Paris.
Live broadcast from the Philharmonie de Paris on February 10, 2022 on Philharmonie Live
Concert recorded by France Musique and broadcast on February 22, 2022
Previous dates
Rome / Italy
Aula Magna dell'Universita Sapienza
- Tuesday, February 15 2022
Florence / Italy
Teatro della Pergola
- Monday, February 14 2022
Paris / France
Philharmonie de Paris / Cité de la Musique, Concert hall
- Thursday, February 10 2022, 8.30pm
Madrid / Spain
Auditorio Nacional de Música
- Tuesday, February 8 2022
La Rochelle / France
La Coursive
- Sunday, February 6 2022, 5pm, Diptych concert - Générations
Thiré / France
Salle des Fêtes
- Saturday, February 5 2022, Dress rehearsal opened only to the residents of Thiré and to the volunteers of the Foundation