Oeuvre: Madrigali a cinque voci, libro quinto: Dolcissima mia vita

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.

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.

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.