Gesualdo Fantasy

The idea for the Gesualdo Fantasy was born after a performance of the Susato Dances by the Fitzwilliam String Quartet in the Golden Palace at Peterhof near St. Petersburg in Russia. I was having a conversation with the first violinist, Lucy Russell, about how the repertoire for string quartet was restricted to music from the 18th century to the present time, as opposed to orchestras and other ensembles whose repertoire can stretch back to the Renaissance and even before, if Early Music ensembles are included. She was saying how happy she was to be playing music that pays homage to music from before the 18th century, and then happened to say that she would love to be able to play music by Gesualdo. I said I would very much like to write a piece inspired by the music of this great 16th century Italian master, but it became clear that writing such a composition for string quartet would lose some of the richness of Gesualdo’s mainly 5-voice choral music. So, I composed the piece for string quintet instead, a quintet with two violas. This is the reason why the piece is, as yet, unperformed by the Fitzwilliam String Quartet, since it is not just a case of inserting another viola player – a string quartet takes many years to learn how to play together as a unit, and an additional player changes the dynamic considerably. The Gesualdo Fantasy consists of 7 unaccompanied choral pieces by Gesualdo, very freely transcribed and adapted for string quintet in a way that somehow evokes the passion of Gesualdo’s music whilst employing contemporary modes of musical expression. Marcus Tristan