Gramophone Awards 2023
Finalist - Early Music

Gramophone Magazine
May 2023
Recording of the Month

Les Arts Florissants, Paul Agnew

Gesualdo: Madrigali libro quinto, 1611
Gesualdo: Madrigali libro sesto, 1611

Paul Agnew and Les Arts Florissants conclude their exploration of this fascinating corpus.

Even more than in his first books, Gesualdo here displays incredible modernity, playing in inimitable fashion on dissonances and chromaticisms.

Love and death, joys and sorrows embrace and clash amid ever bolder harmonies.

“Fully integrated with the musical line, the singers avoid melodrama through intimate, small gestures as if acting for screen, not stage.” - Gramophone Critics’ Choice 2021

"Agnew is surely right to insist on the music’s ability to stand on its own terms. It bears repeating: those who have thought of Gesualdo as a one-trick pony (‘Moro lasso’ and all that …) now have more than six hours’ evidence to the contrary" - Gramophone Magazine, May 2023.