La Compagnia del Madrigale sings sighing and lusting over Gesualdo’s sweet pain of love ★★★★☆

The first madrigal book by Carlo Gesualdo (1566-1613) consists of five-part love songs that all have the same message: the love I feel will kill me. Or: I’d better be dead, I’m that much in love. The despair that is near to the lover is to indulge in delightfully.

‘O, che dolce morire’, La Compagnia del Madrigale sings, sighing and longing. Unlike Gesualdo’s later madrigals (divided into six movements), these have less poignant semitones and therefore sound more even. The Italian vocal ensemble, which can be heard on Friday evening in the Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ in Amsterdam, lets some dissonances grate nicely, only to come together again in sweet love pain.

Here and there there is some messy singing, as in Madonna, io ben vorrei, in which the voices chase each other with bets. The alto is dry and greyish in the light of the radiant soprano. The two penetrating tenors put the bass in the shade. Then, in the longing Non mirar, non mirare for example, they are that wonderfully oiled madrigal machine again.