The Gesualdo Six – Flower of the Italian Madrigal

Trace the evolution of the madrigal from Claudio Monteverdi to Gyorgy Ligeti in this entrancing programme. Monteverdi led the way in a new expressive style of composition, emphasising words just as much as harmonies – and breaking the rules as he went. Palestrina, Gesualdo and Marenzio feature alongside several works of the Il Trionfo di Dori, a collection of madrigals composed in honour of the wife of a Venetian nobleman. Ligeti’s Nonsense Madrigals parody earlier madrigals by using old compositional techniques as vehicles for humorous portrayals of texts from children’s literature by Lewis Carroll and William Brighty Rands.