Il Pomo d'Oro, Giuseppe Maletto
AP312 - 1CD - 65' - Mar 17, 2023
Well established in the field of historically informed performance, the Italian ensemble Il Pomo d’Oro has recently expanded: it now includes a choir, and this is its first solo recording. Conducted by Giuseppe Maletto, the ensemble presents here Gesualdo’s fascinating first book of Sacræ Cantiones. Less well known than his madrigals, the nineteen five-part motets that make up this work explore the theme of repentance through the Liturgy of Penance and the figure of the Virgin Mary. The painfully voluptuous chromaticism and the expressive intensity and refinement of the lines make this work one of the most singular of that period. Gesualdo’s interpretation of the liturgical text is intensely dramatic and highly personal. Il Pomo d’Oro renders perfectly the mysterious beauty of this music.
CARLO GESUALDO
Sacrarum Cantionum Quinque Vocibus Liber Primus (1603)
1. Ave Regina caelorum
2. Venit lumen tuum
3. Ave, dulcissima Maria
4. Reminiscere miserationum tuarum
5. Dignare me laudare te
6. Sancti Spiritus, Domine
7. Domine, ne despicias
8. Hei mihi, Domine
9. Laboravi in gemitu meo
10. Peccantem me quotidie
11. O vos omnes qui transitis
12. Exaudi Deus, deprecationem meam
13. Precibus et meritis
14. O Crux benedicta
15. Tribularer si nescirem
16. Deus, refugium et virtus
17. Tribulationem et dolorem
18. Illumina faciem tuam
19. Maria, mater gratiae
