this is the Tenebrae ensemble singing the Responsories associated with the Tenebrae period. There have been several fine recordings of these items...but this one excels, partly because it gets exactly right the balance between the mannered, madrigalesque features of the music and the eerie drama and morbidity of the religious story.

The Tenebrae choir reaffirms its reputation as one of the leading exponents of renaissance music

Tenebrae's fondness for a monumental sound, achieved with a comparatively small number of singers, is part of a noticeable development of recent years. It certainly focuses the ear on dramatic shaping...From that standpoint, their choice of Gesualdo's Tenebrae Responsories for Holy Saturday plays to their strengths.

If perfection is attainable (which I doubt), we get very close to it here...while these singers revel in the elegance and logic of Victoria, they positively glow in the dramatic and arresting idioms of Gesualdo, whose music, over four centuries on, still has the power to shock and amaze.

The performances and recording ambience here are irreproachable. Tenebrae produce a sound not dissimilar to that of The Sixteen and employ much the same forces of usually three voices per part...Tenebrae have a more mellow sound and thus achieve a better internal balance amongst the four lines...A superb disc

Tenebrae's faultless control and balance bring the sacred texts to life [in the Gesualdo], including some wild modulations and sudden side-slips...[in the Victoria] the 16 singers of Tenebrae under Nigel Short's direction shine in the darkness.