Gesualdo: Death for 5 Voices Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		2.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

Gesualdo: Death for 5 Voices Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 15, 2016

Chances are many readers curious about this release who are coming to this review may have never heard of Carlo Gesualdo, and are instead drawn to investigating this Blu-ray due to the other “big name” featured on the cover: Werner Herzog. For those who have indeed been previously unacquainted with the sometimes extremely provocative compositions of Gesualdo, it might be generally accurate if perhaps slightly misleading to state that in a way he was the Werner Herzog of the late Renaissance and nascent Baroque periods, an artist who consistently broke perceived "rules" in his creative life while also being a bit hard to handle in his personal dealings. For those with a facility in reading music, looking at a Gesualdo score is almost like time travelling—forward about three centuries, to the late Romantic period (at least), when folks like Richard Strauss, Richard Wagner and Gustav Mahler were beginning to toy with vocal lines and underlying harmonies like a cat toying with a (soon to be extinct) tonal mouse. (For the expert Googler, there are some great videos available on YouTube that offer hours of Gesualdo's music with the score scrolling by.) A teacher of mine used to delight in pointing out everything that was "wrong" with Gesualdo's music, including bizarre chromaticism, voice leading that would have gotten him kicked out of any Theory I class, and a generally anarchistic approach to composition that was, in a word, positively Herzogian.

For those who have seen Herzog take on perceived nemeses like Klaus Kinski in My Best Fiend, wondering if a homicide could well be in the offing—guess what? Gesualdo’s own colorful history actually includes a murder (committed by him, unapologetically), perhaps just one sign (along with his music itself) that he may have had both genius and a certain madness in about equal measure. Herzog takes the viewer through a decent biographical overview of this fascinating figure, while offering typically Herzogian detours through a number of tangentially connected stories that allow the director a chance to feature a number of colorful locals.

Gesualdo: Death for 5 Voices Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Gesualdo: Death for Five Voices is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of ArtHaus Musik with an AVC encoded 1080i transfer in 1.78:1. According to the IMDb, this aired first as a television special in Germany in 1995, which may be one reason this is an upscaled presentation that shows some pretty ragged signs of the technology. The IMDb lists this as having been shot in Super 16, and it indeed follows the heavily grainy tradition of several other small format documentaries by Herzog. Unfortunately, the upscaled presentation often makes an ungainly mess of the grain, with a tendency toward clumping and almost geometric patterns coming and going at times. There are also several obvious combing artifacts at play in quick moving moments like conductors waving their arms. Colors are pretty muted as well, and the overall feel of the piece is dated and rather drab.

Gesualdo: Death for 5 Voices Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

ArtHaus Musik's main menu might be a bit misleading, for under languages it includes English, German, Spanish, French and Italian. It turns out that the first two LPCM 2.0 languages are Herzog narrating in those tongues, translating what is in essence an Italian language documentary (hence the Italian LPCM 2.0 track). However, Spanish and French turn out to be subtitle options for the original Italian language track. One way or the other, both spoken elements and several rather good (if fragmented) performances by some Gesualdo performers are presented with excellent fidelity and no appreciable age related damage whatsoever.

Gesualdo: Death for 5 Voices Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The back cover of this release touts a "Special Feature" of German and English commentaries by Herzog. There is no actual supplemental material on the disc (that I could find, anyway), and I believe this must refer to the two narrated tracks mentioned in the audio section of the review, above.

Gesualdo: Death for 5 Voices Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

This is one of those rare releases whose substandard video presentation doesn't automatically mean a complete deal killer. Gesualdo is such an almost unbelievable character in the annals of music (and, indeed, of history in general) that Herzog fans especially are encouraged to check this out, perhaps as a rental if possible.