Though they were published as a set in 1611, complete recordings of Gesualdo's Tenebrae Responsories for Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday are surprisingly few and far between. La Compagnia del Madrigale interleave Gesualdo's sequences with sacred madrigals by de Macque, Luzzaschi, Marenzio and Vinci, and, with a maximum of six voices, approach them from the background of Gesualdo's secular madrigals. The recorded sound is intimate, never too churchy nor overly resonant, so that the group's meticulous attention to every verbal nuance and to all the chromatic inflections and dissonant clashes in Gesualdo's often tortured harmonies makes its point. It's wonderfully accomplished singing, very unlike any other performance of these strangely compelling pieces that I've heard, and thought-provoking at the same time.