Premier Livre de madrigaux à 5 voix. And works by Trabaci and Macque (Diapason, September 2026 – Denis Morrier)
The magazine Diapason has awarded 5 Diapasons to our recording devoted to the First Book of Madrigals for Five Voices by Pomponio Nenna, released on Ricercar / Outhere Music. Thank you for this fine, highly knowledgeable review, which also rewards the work accomplished:
“A gentleman from southern Italy, like Gesualdo and D’India, the ‘imperial knight’ Pomponio Nenna took part in the rise of the musica moderna at the end of the Renaissance, through a style full of contrapuntal licences, expressive chromaticisms and emancipated dissonances. Like the Prince of Venosa, his printed output consists of polyphonic madrigals (two of his eight books have disappeared) and motets.
Recorded here in full for the first time, this Primo Libro (for five voices) of 1582 is dedicated to his patron, the Duke of Andria Fabrizio Carafa, who was to meet a tragic fate eight years later: he was murdered together with his mistress, Maria d’Avalos, on the orders of the cuckolded husband, a certain Gesualdo! A striking fact: Nenna then entered the service of the murderer, rivalling him in the exploration of durezze and other stravaganze. His fame was also long-lasting. In 1643, Marco Scacchi saw in his ‘da tavolino‘ (‘table’) madrigals a cappella, intended for enlightened amateurs, the culmination of the Stylus cubilucaris (or ‘chamber’ style).
While modern performers have regularly slipped pieces by Nenna into their programmes centred on Gesualdo, the reference monograph was still awaited. After the unconvincing Primo Libro for four voices by Palazzo Incantato (Tactus, Trois Diapasons), one can understand how much was expected of Comet Musicke, an ensemble of eleven musicians shared between multi-instrumentalists and singers who sometimes turn into flautists or violists.
The distribution of the polyphonic parts is constantly renewed, from a cappella with one voice per part to the most varied ‘broken consorts’, to vary the colours along the verses, as in Gigli, rose e viole. For the imposing Sommo Rettor del giorno, the sopranos are gathered in a single section and supported by an eloquent instrumental discourse. Often, as in E ch’entro il carro, the viol consort puts down the bow for pizzicatos.
A few well-chosen instrumental pages introduce two familiar figures of Gesualdo and Nenna: Trabaci (for a learned triple fugue) and Giovanni de Macque (with his dizzying Consonanze stravaganti, as breathtaking for their harmonic boldness as for their fearsome ornamentation).”