In the madrigals and motets of the notorious aristocrat, murderer and composer, we hear extremes of expression and harmonies that even today sound fresh and surprising. Brett Dean’s gripping Carlo for string orchestra and electronics paints a dark psychological portrait of the composer, and a pre-concert screening explores his life through the idiosyncratic documentary Death for five voices by cult filmmaker Werner Herzog. Hear the motets of Gesualdo’s African-Portuguese predecessor, Vicente Lusitano, whose music is even further away from the classic Renaissance sound.

The first half delves back further still to 15th-century Flemish and English music, culminating in the newest piece in the programme, a European premiere by composer Lisa Illean, whose haunting new work for strings, piano and electronics offers fleeting glimpses of transparent tapestries of sound.

Programme: