What a night! On Wednesday 2 September, we made our Royal Albert Hall debut with a Late Night Prom for BBC Radio 3, performing to around 2,500 people in one of the world’s most iconic concert halls.
The programme brought together some of the earliest music we have performed as an ensemble, from Machaut, Pérotin and Dunstaple to Josquin and beyond. Much of this repertoire has been with us since our very first concerts; we have toured it around the world, lived with it for years, and now had the extraordinary opportunity to share it on the Royal Albert Hall stage.
We also took on the challenge of performing the entire programme from memory — making the moment we walked off stage, following the final notes, one of particular relief and exhilaration!
It was a privilege to put this music centre stage on such a remarkable occasion, and to share the stage with the Colin Currie Group.
We’re incredibly grateful to everyone who joined us in the hall, listened at home, and has supported The Gesualdo Six along the way. It’s a night we’ll remember for the rest of our lives.
Photos by Chris Christodoulou
Programme
Guillaume de Machaut: Messe de Nostre Dame – Kyrie
Pérotin: Beata viscera
Johannes Ockeghem: Motet ‘Intemerata Dei mater’
Hildegard von Bingen: O orzchis Ecclesia
John Dunstable: Veni sancte spiritus/Veni creator spiritus
Trad. arr.Owain Park: Phos hilaron (‘Hail, gladdening light’)
Josquin des Prez: O virgo prudentissima