Queen of Hearts Album
YouWineMagazine, Alberto Valentino | June 2024
“An exciting and ideal sound journey with a thoughtful selection of songs distinguished by an intense imitative style and rigorous counterpoint. … Anna of Brittany, Margaret of Austria, Anne Boleyn and Mary Tudor, are the queens of “hearts” protagonists of an exciting sound journey dotted with the most beautiful regretz-chansons. … Queen of Hearts thus comes to trace, but above all to unite, the great and small stories in which music has served as a common thread, thanks to a deep study, which is a fundamental part of this project, of manuscripts that preserve prescriptions of sounds, rhythms and texts that are in fact the story of human lives, places, works, styles and forms. And it is precisely on these invaluable sources that the Gesualdo Six consciously want to induce us to reflect. … Good listening!”
Morning Star Album
Catholic Herald, Alex Hodgkinson | January 2024
“Morning Star (Hyperion), is utterly compelling; first-class performances of first-class repertoire. Their account of Byrd’s Ecce advenit … is a masterclass in one-per-part singing. Each line is rich in character, yet no part obtrudes. Like Geist’s violins, the voices seem to dance together in the opening section, often in pairs, and the extended imitation at the end of the Gloria Patri (“et in saecula saeculorum”) is captivating. The purity of tone, balance and fine tuning that has earnt the Gesualdo Six such recognition is immediately apparent in “Mirabile mysterium” of Jacob Handl. … Kudos especially to countertenor Guy James, primus inter pares on this track. Alongside Byrd, Handl and others are excellent pieces by living composers, including Arvo Pärt, Joanna Marsh and the group’s founder, Owain Park.”
BBC Music Magazine’s Recording of the Month, Anthony Pryer | December 2023
★★★★★ Performance | ★★★★★ Recording
“Their style of singing – perfectly blended vocal harmony, exquisite tuning, inventive phrasing, delicately poised textural clarity – provides a magical accompaniment to the warmth of the Christmas season. … There are many engrossing and lovely musical experiences here.”
Limelight Editor’s Choice, Clive Paget | December 2023
“This year’s chart topper is a deep dive that reflects on the true meaning of Christmas. Morning Star, from The Gesualdo Six and conductor Owain Park, combines seasonal Renaissance music with contemporary settings of inspirational poetry. … Park’s curatorial skills have come up with something quietly profound and the singing is heavenly. True food for thought.”
Europadisc Classical | December 2023
“This is another varied programme, but here the balance between the early, the traditional and the modern, between the comforting, the challenging and the festive, feels well-nigh perfect. In particular, the way in which the plainchant items set off the polyphonic items is utterly magical”
The Guardian, Fiona Maddocks | November 2023
“In terms of gleaming vocal purity, The Gesualdo Six, directed by Owain Park, are hard to beat. Their Morning Star (Hyperion) takes its title from Arvo Pärt but combines chant and early works (by Lassus, Byrd, Clemens non Papa) with new works by Joanna Marsh, Judith Bingham and Adrian Peacock. Park’s own O Send Out Thy Light is lyrical and radiant. Not so new but still beautiful, Herbert Howells’s Here Is the Little Door stands out. The dominant mood is quietude, contemplation.”
Live From London 2023
Opera Today, Claire Seymour | December 2023
“The Gesualdo Six sing old and modern with equal insight and artistry. … A satisfying seasonal programme performed with skill, professionalism and earnestness.”
Byrd: Mass for Five Voices Album
Diapason | November 2023
“Owain Park’s male chamber ensemble lends the work a discreet, intimate mood, probably in accordance with its secretive nature … In the motets added as a complement, the harmonic interlacing of the Ave Verum and the stunning expressiveness of the Circumdederunt hold our attention, offering a more complex side of Byrd, as does their contrapuntal writing.”
Limelight, Steve Moffat | September 2023
★★★★★
“A gem of an album from the young and dynamic Gesualdo Six under their director Owain Park. … The Six do this work full justice, with the sweet and lithe tenors Wicks and Cooter folding beautifully around James’ pure falsetto. Craddock’s voice has a distinctive flutter while Park and Mitchell provide the rich bedrock. Similarly impressive are the Lamentations which follow, with this superbly produced collection ending serenely with Jerusalem, Jerusalem.”
BR-KLASSIK, von Thorsten Preuß | August 2023
“They sing with an incredible sovereignty, full of warmth and gentleness and with such an instrumental colour scheme that one sometimes wonders whether there are really six people of flesh and blood at work or not a heavenly wind ensemble. Superbly beautiful, how the six voices merge into a single breathing organism, completely in the tradition and also at the level of the legendary Hilliards. And so this album is a brilliant business card for one of the currently best acapella ensembles. And a nice example of how art overcomes all confessional boundaries. Probably also the strict Elizabeth I would have secretly shed a tear of emotion if she had been immersed in Byrd’s mystical music with The Gesualdo Six.”
The Guardian, Fiona Maddocks | July 2023
“Pure in tone, intonation impeccable, the Gesualdo Six sing with precision and fluency, every line of polyphony audible. The Sixteen, the Tallis Scholars, Winchester Cathedral Choir and others have made top recordings of this repertoire. The chamber scale of the Gesualdo Six creates an authentic intimacy for works that might well have risked the lives of those who performed it.”
All Music, James Mannheim | July 2023
“These are brilliant performances. The motets are artfully sequenced so as to place the mass movements under the microscope, and these six singers, if possible, are getting even more uncannily accurate with each new outing.”
Secret Byrd
The artBeat of Yorkshire, Martin Dreye | December 2023
“This was something else: imaginative, authentic and deeply moving. … This was the finest imaginable tribute to the great man. The singers blended superbly and Fretwork’s rhythmic verve brought the viol music to vivid life.”
The Guardian: The Observer Classical Music, Fiona Maddocks | February 2023
“Secret Byrd, “an immersive staged mass”, took place in the candlelit crypt of St Martin-in-the-Fields. Owain Park directed the Gesualdo Six in Byrd’s Mass for Five Voices, with viol music by Fretwork: elite early music ensembles both, performing with effortless perfection.”
The Guardian, Clive Paget | January 2023
“The spirit of that clandestine celebration of a Catholic mass is at the heart of Bill Barclay’s Secret Byrd, an immersive concert held in the candlelit crypt of London’s St Martin-in-the-Fields. … Musically it’s glorious. The all-male voices ring out with intonational precision and an almost ecstatic connection to text that would have delighted Byrd, who intended the words to cut through the polyphonic underpinning. … What better way to open this year’s 400th anniversary celebrations.”
Lux Aeterna Album
Choir & Organ Magazine, Clare Stevens | October 2022
“This exquisite programme… is a thoughtful exploration of grief and remembrance. … From the opening phrase… to the last note… the music is flawlessly performed.”
Magazin Klassik, Dr Matthias Large | March 2023
“In flowing linearity, the vocal qualities basically unfold ideally, fine nuances are clearly formulated, rare moments of clear vocal manifestation set accents. The noble line gets space, but never gets bleed or unstructured. In addition, an active, understanding-promoting diction can be recorded: The vocalists not only indulge in their self-intoxicated with their balsamic sound, but are rather honest mediators of the content called. Intoned is wonderfully free and solved, in all layers and harmonious requirements safe as on rails – many gratifying moments in final turns and enchanting chordl connections underline this fabulous quality. … A conceptually compelling album that is sung with outstanding quality: The Gesualdo Six give themselves and the audience a wonderful gift.”
Crescendo Magazine, Christopher Steyne | May 2023
“This new release shows the seven singers at the top of their game. Captured in a flattering acoustic (All Hallows, Gospel Oak), the sumptuous vocal production knows how to take us into an oriented landscape, through chosen paths where pain abdicates for visions of comfort.”
Pärt Passio St Martin’s-in-the-Fields
The Arts Desk, Bernard Hughes | April 2022
“Gesualdo Six’s leader Owain Park did a fine job, pacing things faultlessly through conducting that was as undemonstrative as the music.”
Passiontide at Merton
The Telegraph, Ivan Hewett | April 2022
“In the concert given in the chapel by the all-male vocal group The Gesualdo Six, we’d heard another brilliant invention by Frances-Hoad, an invocation of a mythic wood filled with scraps of prayers coming from afar, and this time it felt exactly right. Alongside it were a moving evocation of Christ’s Agony in the Garden by Judith Bingham, and masterpieces from the Renaissance. With only one voice to each part, the music took on an intimate glow, but there was no shortage of intensity and anguish. The director Owain Park wasn’t afraid to ruffle the music’s beautiful surface with startling changes of tempo and dramatic use of dynamic contrast. And yet, the singing was so refined and perfectly balanced we could really relish the tiny details that made the expressive worlds of each composer so distinctive: troubled and subjective in Gesualdo’s Tenebrae Responseries, more restrained and intricate in Tallis’s Lamentations, gravely sorrowful in Byrd’s Miserere Mei. Heard in the concert hall, the Gesualdo Six are wonderful; here, surrounded by the ancient stone of Merton College Chapel, they seemed even more so.”
Tenebrae Responsories Album
Musicweb, Ralph Moore | March 2022
“The Gesualdo Six’s ornamentation is discreet but lends a decidedly more period feeling to their singing and the fact that they recorded “in the round”, facing each other, seems to have enhanced their homogeneity and interaction… The cry “Plorans ploravit” and “Jerusalem” (“weeping in sorrow…Jerusalem”) from the “Beth” passage in the first Lamentations is especially movingly and beautifully delivered here, both prefiguring and providing a link to Gesualdo’s own preoccupation with grief, remorse and death… The balance and acoustic here are ideal… notes by Owain Park provide thoughtful, helpful guidance and context.”
Europadisc | March 2022
“This is a performance of immense stature and huge involvement.. they inject a feeling of urgency and drama which is uniquely persuasive. This really feels like a ‘traversal’, with an expressive arc spanning all nine pieces that would be impossible in liturgical performance but is hugely effective on a recording.”
Yorkshire Times, Andrew Palmer | March 2022
“As one has come to expect with this group, superb, well-controlled singing, wonderful phrasing that produce exquisite lines of beauty and making good use of St Jude-on-the-Hill, Hampstead Garden Suburb, London. One of the delights that sets this CD apart, is the inclusion of two contemporary pieces forming part of the 70 minutes of this inspiring music… At the end of the Tallis Lamentations the consort link to Gesualdo with Judith Bingham’s impressive Watch with me, ‘Then Jesus went with them’ a piece that wonderfully links the renaissance to the 21st century… The rich, sonorous tone of the basses adds depth to the words, and the countertenors cut through effectively. At the end of Gesualdo the choir crescendos and Joanna Ward’s minimalistic style Christus factus est provides a stark contrast to what has come before, using wonderful techniques to hint at both plainchant and folk song, it rounds off this CD perfectly.”
Josquin’s Legacy Album
Hi-Fi News: Album Choice, AE | December 2021
“Sometimes a recording just grabs the attention with the sheer beauty of both performance and sound, and while this one didn’t come completely out of the blue – editor PM had heard the ensemble in concert post-lockdown and recommended it – this latest album from the all-male Gesualdo Six is a total stunner. Recorded to the usual Hyperion standards in a reverberant church acoustic – the perfect location for these pieces, dating from the late 15th/early 16th century – it’s focused around the works and legacy of composer and choirmaster Josquin des Prez. Led by Owain Park, the Gesualdo Six evoke the sounds of a bygone age, with soaring countertenor voices rising above the tenors, baritone and bass to quite magical effect, creating a sound as fascinating as it is relaxing and meditative. It’s a totally compelling listen, and just about as flawless a performance as you’ll ever hear.”
Early Music America: CD Review: Josquin and Friends Inspire Gesualdo Six to the Heights, Aaron Keebaugh | January 2022
“Josquin’s Legacy, the latest recording from The Gesualdo Six, sets the focus upon the famed Franco-Flemish composer and his contemporaries. Plush and radiant, the performances cast a vivid glimpse of a rich and varied era fit for this past anniversary year. … Beaming solo voices grow to encompass the full ensemble, where suspended harmonies tip the music towards light. The music of Josquin’s indelible legacy, the performances suggest, look to the hope that shines even in the most perilous times.”
Diapason, Guillaume Bunel | December 2021
5 Diapasons
“…the ensemble has a lot to seduce. Some hits (Nymphes des bois, Illibata by Josquin) stand alongside with rarities (Miserere by Lhéritier, Quis numerare by Compère), within a varied and well-balanced programme, in both style and genre, as well as in number of singers. … Throughout the disc, the ensemble displays an extraordinarily velvety sound, perfectly accurate and homogeneous… the result is worthy of the most brilliant specialist ensembles, and easily ranks among the best releases of this year, the fifth centenary of Josquin’s death.”
Sequenza 21, Christian Carey | December 2021
“Carlo Gesualdo and Josquin Desprez are worlds apart, in terms of musical language, personality, and chronology, but they share a particular coincidence of geography: both of them had formative musical experiences in Ferrara. Thus, it seemed natural for the Gesualdo Six to center their program The Josquin Legacy around Josquin’s brief but fruitful tenure in the d’Este court in 1503-1504. Another linchpin of the recording is its programming of Josquin’s predecessor Johannes Ockeghem, rival Heinrich Isaac, contemporaries Pierre de la Rue, Antoine Brumel, Loyset Compere, and Antoine de Fevin, and successors Antoine Willaert and Jean L’Héritier, all of whom also had connections to the d’Este court and Ferrara. The curation is excellent, and the singing is most compelling; Gesualdo Six present a well blended, sonorous, and vibrant sound and deliver contrapuntal passages with utmost clarity. Their performance of Josquin’s Nymphes des bois, a memorial piece for Ockeghem, is one of the finest I can remember of this often-recorded masterwork. Equally compelling are their warmly hued rendition of Willaert’s Infelix Ego and plangent performance of Pierre de la Rue’s Absalom Fili Mi, a piece once attributed to Josquin that underscores the musical connections shared among composers of the Franco-Flemish School who found inspiration in their Italian sojourns.”
Choir & Organ, Rebecca Tavener | December 2021
“One excellent new recording (2022 is going to bring more, by the way) comes from The Gesualdo Six with Josquin’s Legacy… In a fascinating programme built around Josquin’s Nymphes des bois (his lament for Ockeghem), these voices find great clarity of ensemble, finely judged tempi, dynamics and deep expression, shot through with intelligence and understanding. At times affectionate and thoughtful, at others compelling with arresting intensity, there’s an admirable recorded glow and immediacy in acoustics which enhance passages where the lowest voice edges towards the subterranean.”
Gramophone, Fabrice Fitch | November 2021
Editor’s Choice
“This is an inventive piece of programming, combining the very well known and the nearly obscure: aside from Ockeghem’s Intemerata Dei mater and Brumel’s Tous les regretz, the pieces not by Josquin have seldom been recorded. But these lesser-known pieces earn their place in spades: Mouton’s lament for Févin is a gem, so too the piece by Févin himself; and Willaert’s setting of Infelix ego deserves to be heard alongside the more famous ones by Byrd and Lassus. Apart from the skill involved in assembling such a discriminating selection, it’s a clever way of introducing listeners to music that might otherwise pass them by. … There’d be something to cite in virtually every piece but I’ll focus on just three: the tricky corners in Tous les regretz are beautifully coordinated; the concluding passage of the Willaert sets the words ‘Miserere mei, Deus’, a not quite exact but obviously intentional quotation of Josquin’s setting of that psalm – a wonderful moment that is beautifully stage managed; finally, the performance of Absalon fili mi is simply jaw-dropping: beautifully controlled and restrained but intensely moving. The upper voice is taken by a high tenor, so that the bass goes down to low C (he might almost be Flemish, and for basses there’s no greater compliment). I have great affection for The Hilliard Ensemble’s recording (Virgin/Erato, 3/84) but this, I think, is better still… as a single-disc introduction to the motet of Josquin’s time, this is hard to beat.”
The Guardian, Fiona Maddocks | October 2021
“Music written before 1600 remains terra incognita for many listeners, though the names of composers from that period are gradually becoming better known thanks to the skilled ensembles who perform this early repertoire. One such, the young British vocal group The Gesualdo Six, directed by Owain Park, have called their latest album Josquin’s Legacy (Hyperion). The spur is this year’s 500th anniversary of the death of Josquin des Prez. One of the most influential European composers of the Renaissance, he spent time in the Italian city of Ferrara, a magnet for composers from France and the Low Countries, and the focus here of the music chosen. … The central work, Josquin’s highly personal Nymphes des Bois, was composed in memory of the Franco-Flemish composer Ockeghem, whose own five-part setting to the Virgin Mary, Intemerata Dei mater, opens the album. Works by Jean Mouton, Adrian Willaert, Heinrich Isaac and others complete this impeccably performed recital. It’s hard to think it could be better sung.”
Christmas Album
Hi-Fi News: Album Choice, AE | January 2022
“You don’t get much more ‘does what it says on the tin’ than this set from the all-male vocal group, here in a typically fine Hyperion recording from Cambridge’s Trinity College Chapel in January 2019. Directed by Owain Park, the ensemble – two tenors, two countertenors, a baritone and a bass – deliver a sound likely to draw inevitable comparison with The King’s Singers, and indeed one track here, ‘Gaudete’, is in an arrangement by a founder member of that group, Brian Kay. However, the Gesualdos present a varied and very festive programme, ranging from the medieval to more modern settings, and the overall effect of the close harmonies, the precise singing and the gloriously atmospheric recording is entirely magical. If you’re only going to buy one Christmas album this year, I suggest you swerve Bublé and give this one a go.”
In Winter’s House Concert – National Centre for Early Music, York
MusicOMH, Melanie Eskanazi | December 2021
★★★★★
“The combination of voices – one each of countertenor and baritone, two of tenor and bass – is so skilfully used and the harmony is so perfectly achieved that it’s almost impossible to select highlights, but the exquisitely beautiful traditional carols ‘Es ist ein Ros’ entsprungen’ and ‘Maria durch ein dornwald ging’ were both remarkable for their sense of hushed awe and serenity.
The ensemble’s programme always combines the well loved – such as ‘Veni, veni Emmanuel’ in a rousing arrangement by Philip Lawson – with the obscure or unexpected, so that on this occasion the traditional was contrasted with 21st century pieces by Sally Beamish and Joanna Marsh.”
“‘In Winter’s House‘, Joanna Marsh’s setting of Jane Draycott’s poem which gives the concert its title, is a fascinating piece which uses the lower voices in a unique way, its contrasting darkness and light allowing us to imagine the “…small quiet house at the turn in the lane / where the darkness gives way to light.” The blending of the voices here was absolute perfection.”
Heavenly Spheres – London Sound Gallery
The i Newspaper, Alexandra Coghlan | November 2020
★★★★ – “Bold, beautiful music at the junction of Sound and Science.”
“Concerts of contemporary music are traditionally a hard sell, and it’s been one of the unexpected pleasures of the current digital pay-per-view landscape that performers can experiment, trusting their audience to take risks a venue or festival might not. Here it paid off, in an exhilarating sequence of works by Dobrinka Tabakova, Tim Watts and Richard Rodney Bennett that each mused on astronomy, physics and their relation to the divine. … Technically daunting and mercurial in mood, the Watts is a touchstone for a young group with serious skills – probably the best all-male ensemble this side of the King’s Singers. With a wonderfully clean alto sound and plenty of low bass to keep things anchored, The Gesualdo Six and artistic director Owain Park made a strong case for these unfamiliar works, framing them thoughtfully with polyphony by Lassus and Josquin – the latter’s Tu solus qui facis mirabilia … an exquisite moment of simplicity and stillness after so many musical equations.”
Fading Album
Limelight Magazine, Lisa MacKinney | August 2020
★★★★★ – Editor’s Choice & Vocal Recording of the Year
“Gesualdo Six kicks it out of the park with this flawless recording. … Like its predecessor, Fading consists of a cappella works taken almost entirely from two eras: the Renaissance and the present day. This is not the most obvious combination nor easiest to pull off successfully, but Fading is, happily, a triumph on multiple fronts. … O Ecclesia is ephemeral and transcendent, an elusive melody that curls away from a low drone and evaporates; a vision so brief one might doubt its existence at all. It is a truly extraordinary, heart-stopping moment. … These performances are superb: precision, warmth, power and delicacy united in an utterly beguiling whole, all the while maintaining perfect definition as each vocal tonality inhabits its own sphere.”
Music Frames, Mattie Poels | August 2020
“The British, traditionally masters in performing vocal polyphonic (early) music, also excel in optima forma on the new album by The Gesualdo Six. These vocalists have an incredibly beautiful and majestic unanimity in the performance, in which they excellent shows the respect for these wonderful compositions. An absolute must-have!”
MusicWeb International, Mike Parr | June 2020
“The program has been very well thought out and divided for contrasting atmosphere of the works. Throughout the disc the musicians sing with splendid attention to detail; each voice is a shimmering thread that is woven into the dense tapestry of sound they create. There is a delicate musical balance that they maintain throughout all of the works that only increases my admiration for this group and Hyperion’s commitment to promote their exemplary work. Hyperion’s engineers have excelled in a recording of demonstration quality. Highly recommended.”
Choir and Organ Magazine, Brian Morton | April 2020
★★★★★
“Combining Tallis and Gesualdo with modern/contemporary composers such as Sarah Rimkus and Gerda Blok-Wilson and the late Veljo Tormis can be tricky for an ensemble, but The Gesualdo Six and Owain Park are fearless and have shaped a programme that almost plays out as a composed sequence. The singing is impeccable… A wonderful recording.”
BBC Radio 3 Record Review, Anna Lapwood & Andrew McGregor | 18 April 2020
“I think The Gesualdo Six and Owain Park are just incredible at this ingenious programming, so there’s this melding of renaissance polyphony with contemporary choral music. I feel it’s a very classy way to look at music by female composers that people might not know… It’s just extremely good all woven together with this thread of music for night-time, music for compline. Blend and intonation really are [impeccable]… You can tell this is a group that work together almost constantly, they know each other’s voices so well… solo singing with a really clear sensitivity of ensemble. A beautiful recording.”
Listen again here, from 2:02:00.
Gramophone Magazine: Editor’s Choice, Alexandra Coghlan | April 2020
“Ingeniously programmed and impeccably delivered, with that undefinable excitement that comes from a group of musicians working absolutely as one, The Gesualdo Six’s ‘Fading’ is startlingly, urgently excellent. If their first album (‘English Motets’, 4/18) pricked up the ears and their second (‘Christmas’, 12/19) confirmed their talent, this third recording from the young all-male vocal ensemble feels like an arrival, showing us exactly what this group is capable of. The quality of the singing – the blend and bass-anchored balance, the rounded, unforced tone, the control from solo voices – is exhilarating. The Gesualdo Six are the real deal. Far from fading, they’re just coming into focus.”
Winthrop Hall – Perth Festival – English Motets
Limelight Magazine | February 2020
★★★★★
“The whole program moved forward by alternating between homophonic and polyphonic textures; between relative simplicity and complexity; between relaxation and tension… The effect was as mesmerising as the almost inexplicable contrast between the purity, clarity and beauty of the singing on the one hand and its affective ferocity on the other. The code-shifting between plain English and luxuriant Latin only intensified this effect.
“Suddenly the Gesualdos introduced a heightened sense of drama with Thomas Tomkins’ searing, plangent lament When David Heard, King David’s grief over the loss of his son Absalom made palpable – the spirit made flesh – through extraordinary word-painting. This was perhaps the concert’s high point, at least in sheer emotional punch.
“Byrd’s sonorous, joyful Laudate pueri Dominum and Vigilate – the single encore – brought this unforgettable concert to a ringing conclusion.”
Winthrop Hall – Perth Festival – Ancient Voices
Seesaw Magazine | February 2020
“When The Gesualdo Six – a consort of young male singers from Trinity College, Cambridge – stepped on stage and began singing William Byrd’s “Miserere Mihi Domine”, it felt as though time had stopped. The purity of their voices, the smoothness of their ensemble. They were bathed in a warm, yellow glow that seemed to descend from heaven itself while the audience surrounded them in darkness. It really was miraculous – a woman sitting across from me had her mouth agape in wonder for a good two minutes.”
St. Quirinius Münster – Neuss
“Die Idee von Klang in verschiedenen Farben hat bei dem Ensemble große Bedeutung. Von unterschiedlichen Standpunkten in der Quirinuskirche wurden die Werke präsentiert. Der Bariton Michael Craddock sang vor dem Hauptaltar solo „The Truth sent from Above“, das Ralph Vaughan Williams 1909 aufgezeichnet hat und Owain Park für Gesualdo Six eingerichtet hat, während seine Kollegen in den Seitenschiffen orgelgleiche Akkorde summten. Arvo Pärts vierstimmiges „Morning Star“ erklang vom hohen Umgang über dem Quirinusschrein. Das zweite der „Three Carols“ für A-cappella-Chor von Gustav Holst wurde in Versen und Refrain von unterschiedlichsten Stellen der Kirche intoniert. Dazwischen erklang in wunderbarer Schlichtheit „Es ist ein Ros‘ entsprungen“ im vierstimmigen Satz von Michael Praetorius. Das war in makellosem Deutsch gesungen wie auch die Zugabe „Maria durch ein’ Dornwald ging“, die ein sehr schönes Adventskonzert beendete.”
Read the full review in the original German here.
Christmas Album
Choir and Organ Magazine | December 2019
“The close recording of the Male voice line-up of The Gesualdo Six on Christmas reveals the tightness of their ensemble in repertoire ranging from Praetorius to Cheryl Frances-Hoad. Tenor Joseph Wicks’ a cappella arrangement of Jonathan Harvey’s The Annnunciation and director Owain Park’s vibrant On the Infancy of our Saviour compliment well-chosen pieces, making for a delightful and informative listening experience – and a thoughtful stocking filler!”
St. Andrew’s Voices Festival 2019
St. Andrews Radio | October 2019
“The standout moment of the evening was definitely the interjection of stunning live music performed by The Gesualdo Six. As the pre-recorded music and visuals tapered off in unison, the group began to sing in the relative darkness, illuminated only with small, white lights. It sent goosebumps down my arms.”
Cambridge Summer Music Festival – Our Lady and the English Martyrs
Cambridge Independent, John Gilroy | July 2019
“From the opening notes of Thomas Tallis’s ‘Te lucis ante terminum’, sung by a lone counter tenor, the concert’s audience was enthralled by the beauties that the human voice is capable of creating.
“The ensemble was consistently immaculate in its presentation of the varied programme which included some rarities from the Renaissance … as well as striking examples of modern compositions.”
Harrogate Festival – St Wilfrid’s Church
Yorkshire Times, Steve Whitaker | July 2019
“The expert calibration of the Renaissance pieces foregrounded personal skill without compromising general integrity.
“Gesualdo Six’s short history – they were founded as recently as 2014 – is an object lesson in warranted ascendancy. Much travelled, broadcast and recorded, the peripatetic Cambridge-based ensemble’s enormous success resides in its forward-looking eclecticism and manifestly pre-eminent quality. The Harrogate Arts Festival ‘Concert by Candlelight’ strand could not have procured the services of finer exponents of sacred music.”
Cadogan Hall
Robert Hugill | March 2019
“This eclectic programme made a terrific showcase for the talents of the Gesualdo Six as they moved with ease from Renaissance to Contemporary music.
“The group’s first ever concert featured, of course, Gesualdo and at Cadogan Hall they included three of the composer’s Tenebrae Responsories: … Vibrantly communicative performances with moments of great control, intensity and eruptions of violence, which brought out the drama of the music.”
English Motets Album
Classics Today, David Vernier – 10/10
“I assure you that you’ve never heard [If ye love me] quite like this, the two tenors, baritone, and bass, slow, smooth, sensuous, the harmonies resonating in the vocal realm as the perfectly carved and cured woods of ideally matched violas and cellos. It’s a very special two minutes and 44 seconds that you will be sure to repeat. … I really enjoyed this disc, for its smart programming and exceptional, often very moving performances. The sound, of finely tuned and beautifully balanced male voices, will move you as well, as it so affectingly captures this very special music, whether known or newly experienced.“
Catholic Herald, Francis O’Gorman | January 2019
“One of the most striking features of this ensemble is that they produce the illusion of being one voice: the coherence of the sound, and the disciplined expressiveness from the top to the bottom line, result in a kind of sonic unity that is distinctive and compelling. Among the choral ensembles of the present, who move us with their insightful readings of masterworks from the Renaissance, the Gesualdo Six are already making their mark.”
Cathedral Music Magazine, Timothy Storey | November 2018
“…this is a CD of rare quality, the very first note arresting our attention with a countertenor tone of great beauty. …a beatific smile of pure enjoyment as we listened to this admirably constructed programme: and we agreed that we had never heard better performances of the three Byrd motets, Vigilate being sung with great energy and dramatic power, and Civitas sancti tui, the magnificent second part of Ne irascaris, given at a properly slow tempo with great pathos and expression. … There is not a bad track anywhere… I have no hesitation in recommending this as an anthology of the highest quality, excellently sung and recorded.”
The Royal School of Church Music, Stuart Robinson | June 2018
“…theirs is a silky, smooth, fresh sound, and, with just a handful of singers, there’s an intimacy of performance not possible with larger numbers. There’s some nifty singing on this CD – Byrd’s Vigilate is a case in point – and, by contrast, warmth and richness in works such as John Sheppard’s Libera nos, salva nos. … With comprehensive, scholarly CD notes from Owain Park, this is an excellent collection.”
BBC Music Magazine, Paul Riley | June 2018
Performance ★★★★★ — Recording ★★★★★
“…while the title can’t be faulted on grounds of accuracy, ‘English Motets’ gives little hint of the glorious treasure trove lurking within. … Weavers of rich and plangent aural tapestries, The Gesualdo Six meld style and substance with beguiling sure-footedness. An auspicious debut.”
Diapason | May Edition 2018
Five Diapasons – For a first recording, this is a superb success
“The young English sextet succeeds, from the very first moments, to capture the attention by imposing a new and very particular voice. An original way of singing these polyphonies, which combines an absolute technical perfection – intonation, diction – with an intimate, enveloping and soft sound. So at the antipodes of the clamour chosen by The Cardinall’s Musick with the same number of singers. … If the individual voices are always recognizable, the overall sound blends in with a superb homogeneity. We appreciate the magnitude of the expressive spectrum covered by this anthology, and the impressive capacity of The Gesualdo Six to create contrasted climates, from the deepest recollection (Ne Irascaris) to the jubilant vigor (Vigilate).”
BBC Record Review, Andrew MacGregor | April 2018
“This selection of English motets proves to be a fine showcase for their clear voices, immaculate intonation and a certain instinct for the drama and intensity of the repertoire, as they explore the extraordinary journey that composition took around the English Reformation.”
The Daily Telegraph | April 2018
★★★★★ Spellbound by a medley of mighty motets
“The genre [motets] flourished mightily in England, as it did all over Europe, and Owain Park, the director of young vocal group The Gesualdo Six has set out to represent the English kind in all its variety. … It’s an ambitious aim for a single CD – but Park pulls it off. The blend and tuning of the voices is so fine that the group achieves a powerfully full sound. … The sheer beauty of the group’s sound in lofty high-Renaissance style pieces like Byrd’s Miserere is spellbinding. The fine-grained texture of solo voices allows us to savour the amazing harmonic pungency of English sacred music, which at times seems almost modernist. It is a wonderful achievement.”
Gramophone | April 2018
“The vocal quality is very fine, not to say superb, and when the music calls for an extrovert approach (as do Byrd’s Vigilate or, very differently, Dunstable’s four-voice Veni Sancte Spiritus) the singers respond with an athleticism and a feel for pacing that isn’t perhaps so common. The close miking does justice to the contrapuntal details, maintaining clarity in all but the densest writing.”
Świdnica Bach Festival
Świdnica24 | August 2018
“Although the ensemble has only been performing together for four years, they have managed to gain much public recognition in Europe.
“The ensemble is made up of gifted English singers whose reputation brought many willing audience members on Friday evening to St Joseph’s Church – which was completely full. Music lovers were enthralled by the beautiful performance of renaissance polyphony.”
Delft Chamber Music Festival
Artstalk Magazine, Holland, Astrid Burchardt | August 2018
“The Gesualdo Six… managed to extract every drop of emotion, colour and drama from the music.
“Special mention must go to Owain Park, the conductor, who at one point seemed to draw the heavenly sounds out of the singer’s mouths with a simple gesture of his fingers. With the voices soaring and interweaving high above us, it occurred to me that it was no wonder that in centuries past, congregations sitting in the first gothic cathedrals, believed in angels.”
Christchurch Cathedral – Victoria, BC
Elizabeth Courtney | July 2018
“This eclectic programme was characterized throughout by the sublime ease and deep familiarity these singers brought to their performance.
“The slow grace and stillness, combined with the marriage of sound and meaningful text which allowed their voices to so effortlessly fill a space that has challenged many larger groups suggests a vintage with a very long life ahead of it.”
St John’s Smith Square Holy Week Festival: Fading
Ian Louis Harris | March 2018
“What a super short concert it was. Indeed, the opening number, Tallis’s Te Lucis Ante Terminum, was worth the price of admission alone.”
Temple Winter Festival
Claire Seymour | December 2017
“The programme juxtaposed the traditional with the modern and the Gesualdo Six switched between the two with admirable ease.”
Kepler’s Trial
Seen and Heard International | November 2017
“The Gesualdo Six are outstanding, shifting impeccably from Renaissance polyphony to twenty-first century music.”
Brighton Early Music Festival
Andrew Connal | November 2017
“Tallis’ Whitsuntide motet ‘Loquebantur variis linguis’ delivered a confident opening which was followed by Alonso Lobo’s heart-rending ‘Versa est in luctum’ where they really started to show their sensitivity and refinement. This reached amazing levels of precision ensemble and vocal colour in Ligeti’s ‘Nonsense Madrigals’ and again in Chilcott’s playful arrangement of ‘Greensleeves’, in which they sang the piano part too!”
Tage Alter Musik Regensburg
Andrew Benson-Wilson | June 2017
“The late night (10.45pm) concert in the Schottenkirche St. Jakob (with its extraordinary sculptures) was given by the young British a cappella vocal group The Gesualdo Six, directed by Owain Park, making their German debut with their programme Journey through the Music of the English Masters. With composers ranging from Dunstable to Tomkins they explored some of the finest music ever produced from the British Isles in a well-balanced and varied programme. They were particularly good at the distinctively English false relations heard in Taverner’s Quemadmodum and Loquebantur from Tallis, the master of such scrunchy harmonic twists and turns. His cadence on Alleluia must be amongst the most beautiful in the history of music, almost equalled by the final cadence of his Suscipe quaeso Domine. These pieces were contrasted by the relative simplicity of Sheppard’s Libera nos II and White’s Christe, qui lux es et dies. The emotional intensity and changes in volume in, for example, Byrd’s Vigilate, were well handled, sounding completely natural to the music. The two countertenors, Guy James and Alex Chance were very impressive. The audience response was particularly enthusiastic, and rightly so.”
Gesualdo: Tenebrae Responsories for Maundy Thursday
The Tablet, Rick Jones | February 2016
“…The Gesualdo Six have everything going for them – talent, youth, stamina, confidence and years of experience of singing the most difficult vocal polyphony in the repertoire. The three pairs of altos, tenors and basses who make up this new ensemble are recent graduates from Cambridge chapel choirs, now practising as freelance professional singers.
“Just days before the start of Lent, they sang with utter conviction, perfect intonation, impeccable blend, just balance and even a little humour Gesualdo’s Tenebrae Responsories for Maundy Thursday.
“…They created the stillness and peace of night in the hushed awe that greeted each Responsory. They sang the Latin as if it were a second language, making sense of what are reactions to the specified readings from Lamentations and Corinthians…
“The blend is superb; but the line-up consists of soloists who will surely also appear as Evangelists, lieder singers or lute-song recitalists in time.
“The group resembles The King’s Singers 50 years on except that they have a conductor. Owain Park moulded the beat with fluency and a sense of momentum.”
Varsity
Olivia Bell | March 2015
★★★★★
What was immediately clear from the first plainsong, sung hauntingly by Michael Craddock, was the effortless poise of the group; here is a choir that brings the same stillness to their demeanour as to their most quiet, gentle passages, and the professionalism shown by all six singers both during and between responses was impressive for what is on paper, though not in sound, effectively an amateur ensemble.
Each vocal part showed control and dexterity that blended with the next, but in particular Hiroshi Amako’s plaintive ‘Mellius illi erat’ during the sixth Responsary was deeply moving. At times you felt like there were a hundred voices; at others, only one.
The communication between each vocal part added to the wonderful sense of line throughout the work.
…what Owain Park and the singers have managed to achieve is an ensemble with extraordinary potential, who stand head and shoulders above any other vocal group in Cambridge, and who surely have a promising future ahead.