Indeed, I am talking about the music of Carlo Gesualdo (1566-1623), the Italian prince-composer who went down in the history books as the murderer of his wife and her lover, as an abuser of his second wife Leonora d'Este and as a man with multiple mistresses. Later he fell into depression and superstition.
I could go on with this colorful biography, but you immediately understand why he is often called the dark prince.
Gesualdo stands outside the traditional polyphonic school. Chromaticism and dissonance were certainly not new in his time, but he pushed them to extremes that were unusual. Put his music alongside that of Palestrina or even Victoria and you immediately hear how far he wandered outside the academic paths.
The program booklet mentions that Gesualdo is especially known for his madrigals, music that goes through your very soul. That's true. However, I know him primarily from the Tenebrae Responsoria, which I first heard in the legendary performance by the Hilliard Ensemble.
A reconstruction of the impossible
Tonight we listened to music from the two volumes of Sacrarum Cantionum, which were published in 1603.
The second book, for six and seven voices, has been incompletely transmitted. Two part books, the Bassus and the Sextus, have been lost. This meant that the twenty motets from this volume were not fully performable for centuries.
Igor Stravinsky ventured into three of the missing parts as early as the 1950s. But he did not reconstruct them from an attempt to approach Gesualdo as historically faithful as possible: rather, he gave them his own twentieth-century compositional voice.
It was only much later that James Wood began a complete reconstruction. For three years he immersed himself intensively in Gesualdo's technique and style to complete the missing voices as convincingly as possible.
That succeeded remarkably well. Today one might try to do the same with artificial intelligence. Perhaps even in one day. Yet I doubt whether the result would have the same human persuasive power. Wood had to reconstruct not only the notes, but above all understand how Gesualdo thought.
His reconstruction was recorded in 2013 with the Vocalconsort Berlin.
Stile Antico: ensemble singing as a living art
Stile Antico has by now grown into an absolute reference in the world of early music. The ensemble sings, as always, without a conductor and arranged in a circle. Everything revolves around listening, reacting and mutual interaction. And that was palpably present from the first to the last minute.
Already in the opening motet Gaudeamus the joy of it burst forth. The singers visibly radiated pleasure in singing together.
Involuntarily you compare it with the opening concert I reviewed earlier. Singing Gesualdo really does require a very different form of craftsmanship. Stile Antico possesses, in my opinion, more mature voices, while the sopranos at the same time sound fresh and full.
A concert without a single moment of boredom
It would go too far to discuss each performed work individually. What struck me most was how quickly the concert seemed to pass. Not because the music was rushed, but because the variety in emotions, colors and tensions was so great that every minute sounded different.
Let me therefore only mention a few moments that were exemplary for me.
The emotional reservoir was tapped for the first time with Peccantem me quotidie, an absolute highlight from his oeuvre and from this performance. The words paenitentem (repentance) and timor (fear) still resonate. Stile Antico seemed to pull them directly from the depths of hell upwards.
With each dissonance that came, on words like "with tears I seek Him", "the sins of my youth" or again "against all evil", I gradually began to recognize a pattern.
That suspicion was confirmed for me in Ave dulcissima Maria (Hail, sweetest Mary).
I cannot of course ask Gesualdo anymore, but I have a strong impression that he was particularly aware of his, to put it mildly, much-discussed conduct of life. In this motet he highlights the words O Maria ... ora pro nobis Jesum so emphatically and so often that it almost sounds like a personal plea. Not just a prayer to Mary, but a desperate request for her to intercede. As if he himself knew only too well that his case with God was far from spotless.
The dissonance on nobis (us) is so striking that I can no longer possibly experience it as coincidental. It is as if Gesualdo places himself outside that group: the "us" that harmoniously coincides and set against it himself, the dissonance. The man who is aware of his deeds, his guilt and his repentance.
And then Jesum: he begs Mary to intercede for him… to ensure that hell stays far away.
Perhaps I am reading too much into it. Perhaps not. In any case, it sounded nothing short of masterful.
Rough perfection
You understand: this concert was full of such moments. When such music is sung so clearly, expressively and deeply felt, not a single minute becomes tedious.
Of course there was also light and joy. Motets like Maria Mater Gratiae and the virtuosic Veni Creator Spiritus brought passion, playfulness and joie de vivre.
And so I return to the ensemble itself.
Perhaps not everywhere was sung as mathematically tightly as by Tenebrae last Friday. But that doesn't need to be. In fact: it mustn't be in this music. Here there must occasionally be a scratch audible, a hint of suffering and pleasure, of humanity.
I noted next to O Vos Omnes: a form of raw perfection. That is exactly what this repertoire needs. And that is what Stile Antico convincingly demonstrated for over an hour.
Acoustics as an additional performer
And yes, I can't help but return to this once more.
In my review from Friday I wrote that with Victoria and Tenebrae I missed the gothic vaults. Tonight I knew exactly why again: the space participates.
The acoustics of Sint-Jacob add something that no other venue can reproduce. Everything becomes richer, fuller and more meaningful through that environment. Those few seconds of reverberation on the word meae... Priceless.
Such a moment when a shiver runs down your spine and you are reminded anew why live music in our beautiful Antwerp churches remains irreplaceable… especially with Gesualdo… especially with Stile Antico.
Sunday 23 August 2026 Laus Polyphoniae : The Other Face of Carlo Gesualdo
photos: AMUZ, Stile Antico, Eduardus Lee, editorial