Founded only recently, La Compagnia del Madrigale can already be considered as the pre-eminent madrigal ensemble on today’s international early music scene. The choice of the group’s name was inspired by the long-standing friendship and shared experiences of its singers from across two decades of performing together throughout the world. The founding members of the ensemble, Rossana Bertini, Giuseppe Maletto and Daniele Carnovich, while cultivating prestigious individual careers, have worked side by side for over 20 years, and their collective understanding as madrigalists has played a fundamental role in bringing an undisputed high level of artistry to groups such as Concerto Italiano and La Venexiana.
Published in 1611 one year after Claudio Monteverdi’s Vespro della Beata Vergine, Gesualdo’s Sesto Libro di Madrigali offers a strikingly different reflection of Italian music as the Renaissance era evolved into the Baroque. The emotional charge and intensity of the texts for Gesualdo’s madrigals, allied to a complex music involving chromaticisms and dissonances, helped create a collection that has intrigued, delighted and puzzled its listeners from the point of its publication on to our own days. To offer a faithful interpretation of these five-part madrigals from the Sesto Libro in modern times requires musicians of great skill and experience, voices of beauty and clarity, and a sense of musical direction between the singers which is united and consistent. La Compagnia del Madrigale fulfils all these conditions (and expectations) on their new Glossa recording. To understand more about what drives La Compagnia del Madrigale, Daniele Carnovich and Giuseppe Maletto were asked to share their views on approaching the Sesto Libro di Madrigali by Carlo Gesualdo, the Prince of Venosa. [read more...]