Graindelavoix & Björn Schmelzer - Tenebrae (2020) [Official Digital Download 24/96]

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.

TRACKLIST

1. Graindelavoix & Björn Schmelzer - Aleph. Quomodo sedet sola civitas
2. Graindelavoix & Björn Schmelzer - Tenebrae responsoria for Maundy Thursday: No. 1, In monte Oliveti
3. Graindelavoix & Björn Schmelzer - Zain. Recordata est Hierusalem
4. Graindelavoix & Björn Schmelzer - Tenebrae responsoria for Maundy Thursday: No. 2, Tristis est anima mea
5. Graindelavoix & Björn Schmelzer - Lamed. O vos omnes, qui transitis per viam
6. Graindelavoix & Björn Schmelzer - Tenebrae responsoria for Maundy Thursday: No. 3, Ecce vidimus eum
7. Graindelavoix & Björn Schmelzer - Exaudi, Deus, orationem meam
8. Graindelavoix & Björn Schmelzer - Tenebrae responsoria for Maundy Thursday: No. 4, Amicus meus
9. Graindelavoix & Björn Schmelzer - Tenebrae responsoria for Maundy Thursday: No. 5, Iudas mercator pessimus
10. Graindelavoix & Björn Schmelzer - Tenebrae responsoria for Maundy Thursday: No. 6, Unus ex discipulis meis
11. Graindelavoix & Björn Schmelzer - Tenebrae responsoria for Maundy Thursday: No. 7, Eram quasi agnus
12. Graindelavoix & Björn Schmelzer - Tenebrae responsoria for Maundy Thursday: No. 8, Una hora
13. Graindelavoix & Björn Schmelzer - Tenebrae responsoria for Maundy Thursday: No. 9, Seniores populi
14. Graindelavoix & Björn Schmelzer - Christus factus est
15. Graindelavoix & Björn Schmelzer - Tenebrae responsoria: Miserere mei Deus
16. Graindelavoix & Björn Schmelzer - Heth. Cogitavit Dominus dissipare
17. Graindelavoix & Björn Schmelzer - Tenebrae responsoria for Holy Friday: No. 1, Omnes amici mei
18. Graindelavoix & Björn Schmelzer - Lamed. Matribus suis dixerunt
19. Graindelavoix & Björn Schmelzer - Tenebrae responsoria for Holy Friday: No. 2, Velum templi scissum est
20. Graindelavoix & Björn Schmelzer - Aleph. Ego vir videns paupertatem
21. Graindelavoix & Björn Schmelzer - Tenebrae responsoria for Holy Friday: No. 3, Vinea mea electa
22. Graindelavoix & Björn Schmelzer - Tenebrae responsoria for Holy Friday: No. 4, Tamquam ad latronem
23. Graindelavoix & Björn Schmelzer - Tenebrae responsoria for Holy Friday: No. 5, Tenebrae factae sunt
24. Graindelavoix & Björn Schmelzer - Tenebrae responsoria for Holy Friday: No. 6, Animam meam dilectam tradidi
25. Graindelavoix & Björn Schmelzer - Tenebrae responsoria for Holy Friday: No. 7, Tradiderunt me in manus impiorum
26. Graindelavoix & Björn Schmelzer - Tenebrae responsoria for Holy Friday: No. 8, Iesum tradidit impius
27. Graindelavoix & Björn Schmelzer - Tenebrae responsoria for Holy Friday: No. 9, Caligaverunt oculi mei
28. Graindelavoix & Björn Schmelzer - Heth. Misericordiae Domini
29. Graindelavoix & Björn Schmelzer - Tenebrae responsoria for Holy Saturday: No. 1, Sicut ovis ad occisionem
30. Graindelavoix & Björn Schmelzer - Aleph. Quomodo obscuratum est aurum
31. Graindelavoix & Björn Schmelzer - Tenebrae responsoria for Holy Saturday: No. 2, Hierusalem, iuge et exue te
32. Graindelavoix & Björn Schmelzer - Incipit oratio Hieremiae Prophetae
33. Graindelavoix & Björn Schmelzer - Tenebrae responsoria for Holy Saturday: No. 3, Plange quasi virgo
34. Graindelavoix & Björn Schmelzer - Tenebrae responsoria for Holy Saturday: No. 4, Recessit Pastor noster
35. Graindelavoix & Björn Schmelzer - Tenebrae responsoria for Holy Saturday: No. 5, O vos omnes
36. Graindelavoix & Björn Schmelzer - Tenebrae responsoria for Holy Saturday: No. 6, Ecce quomodo moritur justus
37. Graindelavoix & Björn Schmelzer - Tenebrae responsoria for Holy Saturday: No. 7, Astiterunt reges terrae
38. Graindelavoix & Björn Schmelzer - Tenebrae responsoria for Holy Saturday: No. 8, Aestimatus sum
39. Graindelavoix & Björn Schmelzer - Tenebrae responsoria for Holy Saturday: No. 9, Sepulto Domino
40. Graindelavoix & Björn Schmelzer - Mulieres sedentes (1)
41. Graindelavoix & Björn Schmelzer - Tenebrae responsoria: Benedictus Dominus Deus Israel
42. Graindelavoix & Björn Schmelzer - Mulieres sedentes (2)



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