Composer: Richard Rodney Bennett, William Byrd, Neil Cox, Eleanor Daley, Douglas Guest, Joanna Marsh, Cristóbal de Morales, James O’Donnell, Owain Park, Henry Purcell, Howard Skempton, Thomas Tallis, John Tavener
Performer: Samuel Mitchell, The Gesualdo Six
Conductor: Owain Park
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Hyperion
Catalogue: CDA68388
Release: 2022
Size: 1.14 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
01. Cox: Keep me as the apple of an eye
02. Tallis: In ieiunio et fletu
03. McKevitt: Lumen
04. Tavener: Funeral Ikos
05. Skempton: And There Was War In Heaven
06. Morales: Parce mihi domine
07. Byrd: Peccantem me quotidie
08. Purcell: Thou know’st, Lord, Z 58c
09. Park: Sequence: In Parenthesis
10. Guest: For the fallen
Daley: Requiem
11. IV. In remembrance
12. O’Donnell: Present yourselves as a living sacrifice
13. Marsh: I take thee
Morales: Missa Pro Defunctis, A 5
14. VIII. Communio
15. Bennett: A Good-night
‘A sequence for the souls of the departed, to be heard by those who remember them’ is how Owain Park characterizes this latest release from The Gesualdo Six. As always with this remarkable group, performances are equally outstanding whether of Tallis or Tavener.
In a crowded field of British vocal groups and small choirs, the all-male Gesualdo Six and their director, Owain Park, have made a strong impact. The group signed with the Hyperion label and released a half dozen albums between 2018 and 2022, enjoying strong sales; this release made classical best-seller charts in the late summer of 2022. The group’s vocal blend, with a bit of the lush King’s Singers sound in close harmony, is instantly recognizable, which bodes well for the future. Lux Aeterna inflects the group’s trademark mix of Renaissance polyphony and contemporary compositions in the direction of the latter, and there are some wonderful compositions here. One is by Park himself; Sequence: In Parenthesis sets a World War I text by poet David Jones in a haunting stream-of-consciousness style. Another highlight is Howard Skempton’s And there was war in heaven, with its middle section describing the battle of Michael and the dragon emerging strikingly from its undulating surroundings. As if Park were not talented enough as conductor, composer, and bass (his voice anchors the sextet and has an impressive bottom end in Thomas Tallis’ In ieiunio et fletu), he writes the annotations and has a real talent for describing the expressive repertory of choral music. Hyperion’s engineers, working at the church of All Hallows, Gospel Oak, accept some ambient noise in exchange for close-ups of Park’s singers, and their virtuosity is so detailed that this works. Those not yet on the Gesualdo Six bandwagon are encouraged to give this release a try.