Although the madrigals of Carlo Gesualdo da Venosa constitute the best-known part of his oeuvre, his religious music is no less important, revealing a completely different facet of the composer.

Aside from the Responsoria (1611), of which Philippe Herreweghe recently made a magnificent recording (LPH010), most of Gesulado’s religious music was published in 1603 under the title Sacrarum cantionum. Unlike the Responsoria, intended for Holy Week services, the motets of 1603 are settings of texts for all circumstances of the liturgical year.

For this recording, made in the Santa Trinità abbey church in Venosa, Odhecaton has enriched the sound palette of its men’s voices with a few instruments, including an ensemble of violas da gamba.

Liuwe Tamminga counterpoints this programme with selected pieces by Giovanni Maria Trabaci and Giovanni de Macque on an historical organ of the Venosa region.