Gesualdo’s Holy Week Responsories now boast an impressive discography, though surprisingly, none of the Italian ensembles associated with the madrigal repertory has yet tackled them. Rather than attempt all three sets as the Hilliard Ensemble did so memorably, De Labyrintho focuses on the one for Holy Saturday, whose nine motets are interspersed with improvisations on the viol by Vittorio Ghielmi. I’m bound to say that these interventions do little to illuminate my understanding of Gesualdo, atmospheric though they are. Perhaps in a concert setting approximating to the conditions Gesualdo would have envisaged for his music (that is, in a twilit church), they might accord better with their musical surroundings.

As so many memorable accounts originate with English ensembles (the Taverner Consort, the Kings’ Singers, the Hilliards just mentioned, not forgetting the pioneering set by the Deller Consort all those years ago), De Labyrintho is bound to excite curiosity, particularly as their debut recording (of Josquin’s Hercules Mass) promised much. Technically, but perhaps more so interpretatively, they don’t quite hit the heights achieved by these others: often, the direction lacks boldness and clear purpose; at other times, conversely, a sudden change in direction yields uncertainty (for example, when the composer introduces a flurry of fast-moving lines, as in Ecce quomodo moritur justus at the word “tolluntur”), because an effect is deliberately overdrawn. The lack of focus is particularly telling in demanding music that has been so well served elsewhere.