CARLO GESUALDO
(1566-1613)
Tenebrae

CD I [71:12]
Feria Quinta – Tenebrae Responsoria for Maundy Thursday

01 Aleph. Quomodo sedet sola civitas (Lectio I) 3:33
02 In monte Oliveti (Responsorium I) 5:01
03 Zain. Recordata est Hierusalem (Lectio II) 3:45
04 Tristis est anima mea (Responsorium II) 5:08
05 Lamed. O vos omnes, qui transitis per viam (Lectio III) 2:41
06 Ecce vidimus eum (Responsorium III) 8:08
07 Exaudi, Deus, orationem meam (Lectio IV) 2:39
08 Amicus meus (Responsorium IV) 3:39
09 Iudas mercator pessimus (Responsorium V) 2:13
10 Unus ex discipulis meis (Responsorium VI) 6:15
11 Eram quasi agnus (Responsorium VII) 5:55
12 Una hora (Responsorium VIII) 3:31
13 Seniores populi (Responsorium IX) 5:53
14 Christus factus est (Antiphona) 2:38
15 Miserere mei Deus (Psalmus 50) 10:13

CD II [62:58]
Feria Sexta – Tenebrae Responsoria for Good Friday

01 Heth. Cogitavit Dominus dissipare (Lectio I) 3:19
02 Omnes amici mei (Responsorium I) 5:01
03 Lamed. Matribus suis dixerunt (Lectio II) 3:09
04 Velum templi scissum est (Responsorium II) 4:41
05 Aleph. Ego vir videns paupertatem (Lectio III) 4:42
06 Vinea mea electa (Responsorium III) 5:37
07 Tamquam ad latronem (Responsorium IV) 3:44
08 Tenebrae factae sunt (Responsorium V) 5:53
09 Animam meam dilectam tradidi (Responsorium VI) 8:31
10 Tradiderunt me in manus impiorum (Responsorium VII) 3:17
11 Iesum tradidit impius (Responsorium VIII) 4:57
12 Caligaverunt oculi mei (Responsorium IX) 10:00

CD III [60:00]
Sabbato Sancto – Tenebrae Responsoria for Holy Saturday

01 Heth. Misericordiae Domini (Lectio I) 2:52
02 Sicut ovis ad occisionem (Responsorium I) 3:31
03 Aleph. Quomodo obscuratum est aurum (Lectio II) 2:23
04 Hierusalem, luge et exue te (Responsorium II) 4:21
05 Incipit oratio Hieremiae Prophetae (Lectio III) 3:41
06 Plange quasi virgo (Responsorium III) 7:09
07 Recessit Pastor noster (Responsorium IV) 4:02
08 O vos omnes (Responsorium V) 4:39
09 Ecce quomodo moritur justus (Responsorium VI) 5:52
10 Astiterunt reges terrae (Responsorium VII) 2:40
11 Aestimatus sum (Responsorium VIII) 3:45
12 Sepulto Domino (Responsorium IX) 6:25
13 Mulieres sedentes (Ad benedictus antiphona) 0:48
14 Benedictus Dominus Deus Israel (Canticum Zachariae) 6:53
15 Mulieres sedentes 0:50

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About this album

There is something deeply troubling and inscrutable in Carlo Gesualdo’s music, something that any listener, even the most inexpert one, will unfailingly experience. This most particularly holds for Tenebrae Responsoria (1611), his definitive statement, his monument, his testament. It is as if this work, firmly embedded in the framework of liturgy for the Holy Week and reaching back to the practices of the Gregorian chant, would constantly extend over its boundaries and transgress its time and setting, immediately addressing modernity, disturbing all the rules in a severe tension, reaching into something that borders on chaos and madness, within the very order and religious devotion it fully espouses.

Graindelavoix, that groundbreaking ensemble based in Antwerp and directed by Björn Schmelzer, are the ideal performers for this disquieting repertoire which originally was sung at Gesualdo’s castle and with probably only one listener in the audience: Gesualdo himself... In a tour de force lasting over three hours, recorded over ten days in summer 2019, the singers fully display all the features which, after 16 albums (all on Glossa) and hundreds of concerts, have made their sound a truly trademark one. In words of Schmelzer, “this is our most important recording to date”. A fascinating essay especially commissioned to Slovenian philosopher and cultural theorist Mladen Dolar puts the music of Gesualdo into perspective, avoiding the clichés that are so often found in texts about the composer.