Gesualdo Six, Oct 18 2025

I heard The Gesualdo Six on Oct 18, 2025. They're a group of six men who specialize in the music of 16th century composer Carlo Gesualdo. This concert was half Gesualdo and half his contemporary Palestrina.

The sextet has two counter tenors, two tenors, a baritone, and a bass. They have exactly the sound I want in early music: clarity coupled with warmth and expression. Also immaculate intonation and a good blend.

The program was thoughtfully put together: three sacred works by Gesualdo, three secular works by Palestrina, four sacred works by Palestrina, and ending with three secular works by Gesualdo. I've listed the full program at the bottom of my review.

The concert opened with two singers by the altar singing solo chants and the other four in the back of the church moving forward with each verse of the choral part. All of the singers seemed to relish the gorgeous acoustic of St. Mary the Virgin.

Gesualdo was really and truly bat sh-t crazy and this is apparent in his music. My first exposure to him was in Concert Choir - - we sang a piece of his and our conductor (the great Robert Fountain) said that harmonic shifts like that we're heard again for 250 years, from Richard Wagner.

The first piece only had a couple of surprises, it seemed pretty straightforward by Gesualdo standards. The second piece had a thrilling set of chord changes that took my breath away. I was pleased to hear that the group sang it "straight," they didn't really lean into the oddities, they sang it with the same warm tone but cool reserve that they used for the Palestrina.

The Tenebrae Responsories were a highlight of the program. The first movement had unhinged drama, the second movement illustrated Jesus's feeling of injustice ("My Lord, why hast thou forsaken me?"), gradually turning to resignation and transcendence. All of this was depicted in the music.

The Palestrina was a striking contrast to the Gesualdo. He's entirely "by the book," never any surprises, genius use of counterpoint, music bound to a profound sense of structure and logic, and relentlessly beautiful. The text setting was the one surprising element - - Palestrina set a few of these pieces by going straight through the text with very little repetition or elaboration. The final piece in the secular Palestrina set, "Quando dal terzo cielo," was like a raspberry sorbet, fruity, tasty, and just a bit tart.

The sacred Palestrina set opened with a movement from his Lamentations of Jeremiah. It was little too sorrowful for my taste - - with such a bold, commanding text I would have preferred some righteous anger. But then I guess they are called "Lamentations" so what should I expect...?

We had more interesting staging choices with "Nunc dimitis" - - an alto was in the center aisle of the church singing chant with a quartet hidden in the back of the church and the bass singing his chant from various locations. This provided a nice bit of acoustical variety.

Palestrina's "Sicut cervus" is his best-known piece. It's been performed thousands of times over the last nearly 500 years. Hundreds of thousands of times? A million? Gesualdo Six made it sound fresh and full of life. The "Gloria" that ended this set was bright and buoyant, dancing and exultant.

The program ended with three Gesualdo secular madrigals, wonderful examples of his bizarre style. The first sounded like flashes of light alternating with dark clouds. They really let their voices pour out in this piece, not that they felt they were holding back before.

Something puzzling happened in the middle piece. It's written for five voices, full of movement between the voices, but somehow it came across like the declamation of one person. I'm not sure it's that's the music, the performance, or both, but I'd never heard anything quite like it.

The final piece, "Moro, lasso, al mio duolo" was the first piece of his I ever heard, back in Concert Choir sometime around 1988. The Gesualdo Six performance was definitive. The harmonic shifts were never cleaner and therefore never more shocking. I might have been hearing harmonics in this last piece - - I'm not sure that's what I was hearing because I don't believe I've ever heard harmonics in my life. I think it was a mixture of their sublime tuning and the glorious acoustic but in this last piece I heard a few high metallic sounds, one of the pitches doubled very high, like a musical saw or ondes martenot. Were those acoustics I was hearing?

They did an encore but I don't know what it was. It sounded like a 20th century English piece. I wish they had announced it.

Here they are singing Lassus. The sound is sweet and lovely at the start, with the higher voices, but when the lower voices come in at 0:19 I go into a swoon. That dark chocolate sound, it does something to me I can't describe.

Gesualdo: sacred works

"In te Domine speravi"

"Peccantem me quotidie"

Tenebrae Responsories: "Tristis est anima mea," "Tenebrae factae sunt," "O vos omnes"

Palestrina: secular

"Io son ferito, ahi lasso"

"Queste saranno ben lagrime"

"Quando dal terzo cielo"

Palestrina: sacred

Lamentationes Jeremiae Prophetae: "Sabbato Sancto, Lectio III"

"Nunc dimitis (Salva nos Domine vigilantes)"

"Sicut cervus"

"Gloria" from Missa Papae Marcelli

Gesualdo: secular

"Asciugate i begli occhi"

"Ancide sol la morte"

"Moro, lasso, al mio duolo"