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Agony, ecstasy and a double murder: Bill Barclay and The Gesualdo Six combine for a theatrical concert celebrating the life – and death – of the Renaissance composer.

A death-themed evening might not seem a crowd-pleaser, but the Dudok Quartet defies convention in this excellent concert at Sheffield’s Music in the Round.

Fusing the Renaissance polyphony of Les Arts Florissants with the contemporary dance of Compagnie Amala Dianor was an ambitious experiment, which displayed great virtues but didn't quite come off.

From the oppressed Catholic minority of 16th-century England to contemporary settings, The Gesualdo Six bring their Wishing Tree programme to Auckland. 

Il Pomo d'Oro and La Compagnia del Madrigale deliver a moving, nuanced performance of Gesualdo madrigals at La Bâtie festival. 

English Touring Opera's triple bill of early Baroque miniatures promised an intruiging evening but failed up to expectations. 

A Lenten programme of 17th-century French and Italian sacred music partially fulfilled its dramatic potential in refined, understated performances. 

A concert at the Andrzej Markowski International Wratislavia Cantans Festival that was anything but traditional or predictable.

Bringing her programme of Baroque arias to London, Joyce DiDonato was on a mission to discover how we find peace.

“This is surely music at its most extreme, from any period,” wrote Peter Phillips, in a note explaining his “chalk and cheese” programme for The Tallis Scholars at the Proms on Wednesday night.

On Sunday evening the JACK Quartet, seemingly ubiquitous in new music circles, performed an enlightening array of musical styles at (Le) Poisson Rouge, joined by rising young cellist Joshua Roman. The thoughtful programming was almost as chronologically diverse as it could have been.

Celebrating their 40th anniversary year, The Tallis Scholars presented a programme of Renaissance polyphony centred around another anniversary – that of Carlo Gesualdo, the 400th anniversary of whose death falls this year. The first half of the concert was a complete performance of Gesualdo’s masterpiece, the Tenebrae Responsories for Holy Saturday (1611).

“Please silence all electronic devices and refrain from talking. This evening’s program will be presented without intermission or breaks for applause. It is our hope that this structure will assist in providing a meaningful experience...

Choral concerts often have programmes that read like compilation CDs. I don’t mean this negatively: there are countless reasons why a greater number of contrasting pieces is required – timbral, textual, temporal, contextual, historical, and so on.

As part of the official opening of the new Ames Family Atrium, the Cleveland Museum of Art presented the brilliant twelve-man choral ensemble Chanticleer in a sold-out late evening concert on 30 January.

In the spare modern elegance of Hall One at Kings Place, choral octet Platinum Consort, under the direction of their founder and conductor Scott Inglis-Kidger, gave an impressive and impeccably presented performance of works from their critically acclaimed recording In the Dark, written for, or inspired by, the Tenebrae tradition.

It is not often you find Monteverdi and Stravinsky snuggled side-by-side on the same programme, but that was exactly what was packed into the latest instalment of The Bostridge Project: ‘Ancient and Modern’ series at the Wigmore Hall.

An anniversary is undeniably a time for celebration, a time to reflect on past accomplishments whilst keeping the future in close view. This was the case for Tafelmusik’s Chamber Choir on the eve of their 30th anniversary.

In meistergeschicklicher Entsprechung zeichnete die tschechische Gesangsformation unter Leitung Vojtěch Semeráds im existenziellen Setting ein Bild aus Sagen-Können, Fühlen-Dürfen und Auffangen-Müssen.

La Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia aborda un programa barroco, interesante e intenso, con Carlos Mena en la dirección.

Concluant leur résidence à la Cité de la Voix, l'Ensemble Aedes et son chef ont proposé un extraordinaire programme-concept en forme de « chemin de foi » menant au Stabat Mater de Poulenc.

Ein außergewöhnliches Konzertprojekt von Patricia Kopatchinskaja und der Camerata Bern, das das schier unerschöpfliche Potential klassischer Musik ausleuchtet.

El ciclo “Universo Barroco” del CNDM, volvía a reunir a Les Arts Florissants con el objeto de consumar el siguiente episodio de la retrospectiva dedicada a los madrigales a cinco voces del compositor italiano, iniciada dos años antes.

Solistas de Les Arts Florissants junto a Paul Agnew en la dirección ofrecieron una selección del Libro IV de madrigales de Gesualdo y otros compositores contemporáneos.

Les Arts Florissants presenta una nueva entrega de su proyecto consagrado a los libros de madrigales de Carlo Gesualdo y demuestra nuevamente sus sobrados recursos para hacer frente a este complejo repertorio.

En la obra de Gesualdo no hay misterio que resolver, sino un camino complejo, pero trasparente que nos devuelve, al final del recorrido, una imagen lo más completa posible. Y los medios para conseguirlo han de ser el rigor, el conocimiento profundo de las fuentes y una mesura ejemplar para lograr devolvernos el magnífico entramado polifónico.

Es menester encomiar la dirección de Agnew y el desempeño de sus músicos, que lidiaron obstinadamente con una complejidad contrapuntística no menor a la exigida por la afinación de cada nota, y obtuvieron éxito preponderante en la ejecución de las constantes disonancias y cromatismos. 

Au festival de Royaumont, l'ensemble Graindelavoix s'est lancé dans l'interprétation des trois cycles des Offices des ténèbres, de Carlo Gesualdo. Une performance de théâtre sacré dans un cadre exceptionnel.

Programme puis projet de plus grande envergure conçu par Joyce DiDonato après les attentats de novembre 2015 à Paris, ce récital repris cette saison dans "Les Grandes Voix" aux côtés de l'orchestre Il Pomo d'Oro dirigé par Maxim Emelyanychev résonne de façon significative avec l'actualité et propose de repenser la question de la paix autant que celle de l'expérience du concert.

Le deuxième concert du Festival d'Ambronay 2015 était donné par l’ensemble vocal Voces Suaves. Souvent a cappella, leur programme composé de polyphonies et de madrigaux a mis en valeur le travail précis de ces jeunes artistes. Un moment plein de grâce, propice à la contemplation.