Sacrae Cantiones/Liber Secundus

Renaissance composer Carlo Gesualdo is known for his intensely expressive madrigals and sacred music that use a chromatic language not heard again until the late 19th century. As we commemorate the four hundredth anniversary of his death in 2013, one of Gesualdo's last works still remains to be discovered: the second book of his Sacrae Cantiones. These motets in six and seven voices have remained in obscurity due to the fact that several of the vocal parts were lost. Thanks to his methodical research, musicologist and conductor James Wood has managed to reconstruct the score for the first time and perform these works as they might have been sung in 1603. This fascinating investigation took three years to complete. Leading the VocalConsort Berlin Wood offers illuminating readings of these long-forgotten gems of the Italian Renaissance.