With his third book of madrigals, the defining features of Gesualdo’s style appear in earnest, and Delitiæ Musicæ’s complete survey seems to me also to step up a gear. The balance between high and lower voices is better negotiated, and the distracting interventions of the ensemble’s continuo player are reined in. At times the musicians respond to the composer’s anguished sorties with mannerist touches of their own, as at the start of “Ahi, disperata vita”; this is reminiscent of Rinaldo Alessandrini’s approach with Concerto Italiano (Opus 111/Naïve) but shies away from Alessandrini’s atomised approach to the text. At times the sense of line is not as marked as it might be; at others, Gesualdo’s propensity for sudden contrasts doesn’t tell as it might. I suspect the emphasis on a solid homogeneity of sound is achieved at the expense of a certain flexibility.

None the less, at their best these are distinctive and (dare one say it of such a composer) affectionate performances: the habit of lingering over dissonances delivers some impressive moments, where the homogeneity becomes a real asset (try the concluding six-voice Donna se m’ancidete, which includes the continuo, and Deh, se già crudele, which doesn’t), and the tuning issues I commented on in Vol 2 (2/11) intrude far less here (barring, however, the beginning of Veggio, sì, dal mio sole). A couple of light-hearted canzonets provide light relief at the close. Let’s hope that this series continues its upward trajectory.