“There is something deeply troubling and inscrutable in Gesualdo’s music, something that any listener will unfailingly experience. This most particularly holds for Tenebrae responsoria (1611), his definitive statement, his monument, his testament. It is as if this work would constantly extend over its boundaries and transgress its time and setting, immediately addressing modernity ….” – Mladen Dolar, Out of Joint (2020)
More than 400 years later, the music of Carlo Gesualdo still seems strikingly avant-garde. This is music at the end of an epoch; at once steeped in and a radically unsettling subversion of the traditions of the sixteenth century.
The first set of Responsories for Maundy Thursday (Feria V) evoke Christ’s abandonment, betrayal, and death. Gesualdo’s dramatic settings reflect the angst of the passion story, alongside his own bloody encounter with death.
Translating literally to ‘darkness’, the plural form of ‘Tenebrae’ is fitting; it implies a multiplicity, all-encompassing shadows; a plunge into darknesses of both deeply personal grief and of universal sorrow.
ARTISTS
AJ America
Rachel Mink
Michelle Ryan
Dan Walker
Lucien Fischer
Alasdair Stretch
Roland Peelman AM
ABOUT LUMINESCENCE CHAMBER SINGERS
Comprised of six professional singers, Luminescence Chamber Singers is a virtuosic vocal ensemble based on Ngunnawal and Ngambri country (Canberra, Australia). Performing repertoire that spans medieval music, renaissance polyphony, folk song, pop and contemporary art music, Luminescence has rapidly emerged as one of Australia’s most exciting ensembles.
- 60 mins (no interval)
