Madness!

Madness! is an encounter between Eastern mysticism and Italian Late Renaissance, in which the music is not only a mirror for the human mind but also a way to think beyond the boundaries of time and space. The program bridges the gap between the Persian mystic Al-Hallaj (c. 858-922) and the psychological depths of the Italian Carlo Gesualdo (c. 1566-1613). Both represented the themes of genius and madness.

Madness! features new work by the French-Lebanese composer Zad Moultaka, set to texts by Al-Hallaj. While this mystic meant with his famous phrase ‘I am the truth’ that his ego had merged into God, it was regarded by contemporaries as blasphemy. In the refined Western sounds of the harpsichord, the relationship between East and West is expressed: the mystical philosophy of Al-Hallaj finds its own contemporary, committed voice with the music of Moultaka.
 

Around 1600, the Italian nobleman Carlo Gesualdo proved himself an unprecedentedly visionary composer. His daring harmonies and alienating chromaticism demonstrated his extreme spirit, a spirit from which the murder of his adulterous wife and her lover also originated. In his Madrigals, he tuned the music to the text with precision. Words such as death, pain, or love were amplified by sharp dissonances or, conversely, by soft, flowing lines. Apart from burying his wife, Gesualdo also single-handedly brought the madrigal tradition into the Baroque era.