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Gesualdo - Madrigali - Libro III The Kassopeia Quintet This introduction to The Kassopeia Quintet has given us the keenest pleasure. Founded when they were international students based at The Hague, their blend of young voices and punctilious intonation places them at a high level in a quite competitive field. Gesualdo is particularly appreciated by generalists, probably because, as they tell us, he was the sole composer to pursue expressive dissonance to such an extent. This book of twenty madrigals covers the usual gamut of delight in love and beauty, and the pains of loss and rejection, couched in extravagant poetic terms. It is all recorded ideally, and (to use a hackneyed phrase) Most warmly recommended, and not just for specialists.
Madrigali - Libro IV
This recording is equally excellent and desirable. Tido Visser tells us that each book has its specific character with the composer's development becoming clearer if they are tackled consecutively. The Kassopeia Quintet did so first in 2006. Book IV "ends one period and begins another", so you will have to buy these two and wait for the next to be released before all comes clear... With full texts and English translations, the Kassopeias are ideal guides. I Luci serene e chiare
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we do indeed await eagerly the other volumes of what is to be a complete series, most of all to Books 5 & 6, in which Gesualdo "pushed chromaticism and dissonance to their limits". 