Couperin: Leçons de Ténèbres – Gesualdo: Tenebrae Responsories for Maundy Thursday

Some of the most atmospheric music from the numerous Liturgical settings in Holy Week is that composed for the Office of Tenebrae. Victoria’s are the most well-known, but equally beautiful and arguably more dramatic are the settings composed by Gesualdo. They have an intensity unrivalled in most music of that time owing to the extraordinary and sudden harmonic shifts, which at times sound almost contemporary, and rhythmic outbursts led on occasion by a single word. It is sung by a small consort of Tenebrae members – Grace Davidson, Julia Doyle, Jeremy Budd, David de Winter, Gabriel Crouch & Jimmy Holliday. They are paired here with Couperin’s beautiful and mesmerising Leçons de Ténèbres – performed by sopranos Grace Davidson and Julia Doyle, alongside continuo players Steven Devine and Jonathan Rees (viola da gamba).