Published together in 1611, Gesualdo’s Fifth and Sixth Books of Madrigals can be seen as musical ‘twins’, concluding a collection of madrigals by a composer whose boundless invention and creativity was unrestrained by an employer’s demands or the constraints of courtly convention. Gesualdo returns to themes of love and rejection, death and suffering, joy and sorrow - creating music which has the power to surprise and enthrall anyone who hears it.

This is Delitiæ Musicæ’s final volume of their highly acclaimed cycle of the complete Madrigals. There has been a great deal of critical acclaim for their previous volumes of Gesualdo’s Madrigals. ClassicsToday.com considers that the ensemble ‘truly owns this repertoire’ (Book 1), and Gramophone admires the ‘fine recording’ of Book 2, as part of a ‘distinctive set’. With a popular track record, we can be assured that the many collectors of this series will not want to be without its magnificent final volume.

The unconventional yet impassioned interpretations by Delitiæ Musicæ and Marco Longhini are seen as an important element in the regeneration of Italian Renaissance and Baroque music.