Description
We are delighted to present our tenth album, Radiant Dawn (2025).
About the CD From religious processions to military victories, the combination of voices and trumpet has played a prominent role in concerts and ritual for centuries.
On this album, we explore different shades of light through music, capturing moments across the spectrum, from the soft, golden glow of a summer evening as shadows lengthen to the shimmering of moonlight on calm waters. Some texts contrast the terror of darkness with the brilliance of dazzling sunlight; others explore the blurred boundaries between heaven and earth. Plainchant threads this programme together – sometimes finely woven into the structural framework, and at other times as a fragment of the composer’s imagination. Owain Park © 2025
Reviews
“A mesmerising journey from dawn to dusk. This is an ingenious and moving collection of pieces framed as the interplay between light and dark, and moving across the spectrum of such experiences. … The Gesualdo Six do not let us down.” – BBC Music Magazine (Anthony Pryer)
“[Radiant Dawn is an] engrossing and expertly woven musical tapestry of choral music ancient and modern. The Gesualdo Six play decidedly to their strengths: plainchant and English polyphony melded with well-crafted contemporary creations. … They are joined by trumpeter Matilda Lloyd, who is in every respect their musical equal. … Such an amalgam of ancient and modern, so carefully conceived and compelling presented, will remain forever fresh.” – Limelight (Tony Way)
“Despite the title, night – alive with ghosts, “perils and dangers”, but also consoling and comforting, warm and scented in summer, watched over by moon and stars – is the focus here. The repertoire is typically eclectic, full not just of new names and repertoire but unexpected textures and juxtapositions. The group is joined by trumpeter Matilda Lloyd, … who rhetorical playing and chameleon-tone ushers the world into meditative seclusion of the voices. …. Musicianship is always uppermost with this group: tuning, phrasing, diction. The care is evident in every detail, but with no assertive need to make a musical case. This soft-grained, always-blended approach – almost close harmony style – works beautifully.” – The Tablet (Alexandra Coghlan)
“The Gesualdo Six, British male singers of ineffable vocal beauty, make such beguiling sounds … The mix of music old and new works well, eased on it way by the artist of the Six themselves: two countertenors, two tenors, a baritone and a bass, who sing with commitment, polish and verve.” – The Times (Geoff Brown)
“The five new classical albums to hear this week – featuring The Gesualdo Six and Sir Andrew Davis:- ‘Radiant Dawn’ is an exploration of musical evocations of dawn and dusk. It features two of James MacMillan’s Strathclyde Motets, as well as works by Tallis, Roxanna Panufnik, Judith Bingham, Geoffrey Burgon and Park himself.” – Gramophone (James McCarthy)
Tracklist
Night Prayer Alec Roth
O nata lux Thomas Tallis
grandmother moon Eleanor Daley
The light thereof Deborah Pritchard
O radiant dawn Sir James Macmillan
Dum transisset Sabbatum Thomas Tallis
O gloriosissimi Saint Hildegard of Bingen
O hearken Roxanna Panufnik
Christe, qui lux et dies II Robert White
Aura Richard Barnard
Enter Ghost Judith Bingham
Sommernacht Owain Park
Abendlied Joseph Rheinberger
In splendorous sanctorum Sir James Macmillan
Nunc dimittis Geoffrey Burgon
