Tag: Costanzo Festa

The Renaissance Princes Of Heartbreak: The Gesualdo Six, Wigmore Hall, 23 June 2024

This was a wonderful concert and a lovely way for me and Janie to chill at the end of the weekend.

When I first saw The Gesualdo Six, coincidentally six years ago, I described them as the hottest boy band in the early music vocal consort world

Fading: The Hour Is At Hand, The Gesualdo Six, St John’s Smith Square, 28 March 2018

But now, having heard them and seen them some more, I realise that The Gesualdo Six are now beyond boy band. They are to 15th/16th century Chansons de Regretz what Taylor Swift is to the 21st century heartbreak song.

Further, the Ges-Ges Boys, much like Tay-Tay, are mastering the art of social media management. When Owain Park announced from the stage that “you can find us on TikTok”, I wondered:

  • whether he was joking,
  • how many members of the Wigmore hall audience understood what he meant by TikTok,
  • was I the only person in the Hall (other than the Ges-Ges Crew) who had a TikTok account.

I can’t be sure about the answer to the second and third question, but I can confirm that Owain Park wasn’t joking.

@thegesualdosix

Listen to this famous motet by Thomas Tallis. ‘If ye love me’ was composed in the 16th-century and is a perfect example of the enduring power of Renaissance polyphony. #singing #classicalmusic #music #choir #musician #church #song #cinematic #g6 #choral #classical #oldisgold #ancientmusic #polyphony #earlymusic #renaissance #fyp #foryoupage #fypシ #tallis

♬ original sound – The Gesualdo Six

They are also very good at merchandising. On my 2018 visit Owain tempted me to buy a pre-release version of their first album – English Motets (which includes the track embedded above from TikTok, as it happens). This time he persuaded me to be among the first to buy Queen Of Hearts, the latest album.

To be honest, I don’t really need much persuading and I can confirm that the Gesualdo Six recordings are excellent.

The Gesualdo team themselves staffed the merchandise and payment gadgets during the interval, chatting kindly (and at some cases at length) with the patrons who queued up to buy the recordings. I believe they did that all again at the end of the gig.

I wondered to myself whether Taylor Swift was doing this at her Wembley Stadium concerts – I have heard that she engages with her audience like no other. Possibly Tay-Tay is still there at Wembley, selling, signing and chatting.

So what did we hear at The Gesualdo Six gig, I hear you cry. Here is the stub from the Wigmore Hall website posting for this concert.

Almost all the stuff we heard was from this new Queen of Hearts album. Did I mention that it is available from The Gesualdo Six website – click here. We are loving listening to the albums. I also bought Josquin’s Legacy to add to my collection.

Before the interval we heard:

  • Antoine Brumel (c.1450-1512) Sub tuum praesidium (pub. 1520)
  • Josquin des Prez (c.1450-1521) O virgo prudentissima
  • Loyset Compère (c.1445-1518) Plaine d’ennuy/Anima mea
  • Antoine Brumel Sicut Lilium
  • Jean Mouton (c.1459-1522) Ave Maria … virgo serena (pub. c.1520)
  • Johannes Prioris (fl. c.1485-1512) Dulcis amica Dei (pub. 1508)
  • Owain Park (b.1993) Prière pour Marie (2023)
  • Jean Lhéritier (c.1480-1551) Sub tuum presidium a6

After the interval:

  • Josquin des Prez Petite camusette (pub. 1545)
  • Antoine de Févin (c.1470-1511) Fors seulement (pub. c.1515)
  • Jean Mouton De tous regretz
  • Anon Se je souspire/Ecce iterum attributed to Margaret of
  • Austria
  • Costanzo Festa (c.1485-1545) Quis dabit oculis (1514)
  • Ninfea Cruttwell-Reade (b.1989) Plaisir n’ai plus Commissioned by The Gesualdo Six (2023)
  • Johannes Prioris Consommo la vita mia
  • Nicolas Gombert (c.1495-1560) Tous les regretz (pub. 1544)

Below is a video of them singing Josquin’s O Virgo Prudentissima – one of the pieces we heard.

This group is the real deal. Janie and I floated home after the concert.

Josquin’s Legacy, The Gesualdo Six, Wigmore Hall, 10 October 2022

The Gesualdo Six photo by Sprague-Coolidge, CC BY-SA 4.0

The Gesualdo Six is a wonderful Renaissance choir. However, I had a numerical problem with its promotional material when I first saw them in 2018…

Fading: The Hour Is At Hand, The Gesualdo Six, St John’s Smith Square, 28 March 2018

…which seems to be unresolved despite my pleas. The publicity material for The Gesualdo Six regularly shows seven people.

I’m not really one to talk, having recently been part of a six-person works-outing winning quiz combo known as “The FS Club 7”. But readers, many of whom are early music lovers, will surely know that the name is not a numerical claim, but a pun on the early music (i.e. some of it released even before the turn of the 21st century) pop combo, S Club 7.

But it is not my purpose in this piece to “bring it all back” in the matter of S Club 7’s ancient exploits, but rather to assess the wonderful world of Josquin’s Legacy, as sung by The Gesualdo Six.

While Josquin’s mostly late 15th century music formed the core of the concert, there were also pieces by his contemporaries, Jean Mouton & Antoine Brumel, plus several works by lesser known composers who followed a generation or so later.

It was a mixture of sacred music (both new and old testament liturgy) plus several regret/deploration pieces commemorating the death of fellow composers or patrons.

Here is a link to The Gesualdo’s promo vid for the album which this concert was surely (in part) aiming to help promulgate.

Here is a link to the Wigmore Hall concert programme.

The concert was a BBC Lunchtime concert, which, if you are reading this within a month of the broadcast, can still be heard on the BBC Sounds App – here.

The Wigmore Hall also streamed this one, so you can watch and listen here.

This was Janie’s first opportunity to see/hear The Gesualdo Six live and she was much taken with the group.

“The Gesualdo Six: great with singing, not so special when it comes to numbers.”

Not too bad a tag line.

Inspired By The Sistine Chapel, The Tallis Scholars, St John’s Smith Square, 14 April 2019

Hanging about in that part of Westminster is becoming a habit. The Abbey on the Friday…

A Gresham Society Visit To Westminster Abbey Library & Muniment Room, Plus The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Galleries, 12 April 2019

…and that was not even my first visit of the week to Dean’s Yard…

…then this wonderful Tallis Scholars concert at the start of the St John’s Smith Square (SJSS) Holy Week Festival.

It is hard to explain why, as non-religious people, this type of religious music works so well for me and Janie. I suppose it is simply because we love the music of that Renaissance period and the finest music from the period tends to be the sacred rather than the secular music.

Janie and I enjoyed a pre concert and an interval drink in the crypt, a venue which Janie always enjoys. Great to see something close to a full house at SJSS too; we don’t so often see that, sadly. The place seems warmer when full.

Here is a link to the SJSS resources on this concert. For those who don’t wish to click, the main take away from that material is that this concert showcases music that was guarded by Popes during the high Renaissance within the confines of the Sistine Chapel.

Lots of Palestrina with the magnificent Allegri Miserere as the highlight to kick off the second half of the gig.

Here is a beautiful video of The Tallis Scholars performing the Miserere, albeit some 25 years ago:

As in that 1994 version, at our concert several of the voices spread out across the concert hall, to give an intriguing surround-sound effect.

Below, from that same 1994 concert I believe, is some Palestrina, Nunc Dimittis, not one of the pieces we heard in April 2019:

The Tallis Scholars are always top notch – so professional and such marvellous voices. We hadn’t seen them for a while…

The Tallis Scholars: Isaac and Mouton, Wigmore Hall, 9 March 2017

…the last time we saw them I picked up from the encore the delightful Heinrich Isaac song, Innsbruck Ich Muss Dich Lassen, for my Gresham Society performance that year:

Gresham Society Soirée, Barnards Inn Hall, 14 December 2017

No such simplicity in April 2019 – The Tallis Scholars encore was Lotti’s Crucifixus for eight voices. At least seven-and-three-quarter voices above my pay grade.

Here is another mob, confusingly named Tallis Vocalis, all performing that lovely Lotti at an appropriate pay grade:

The Tallis Scholars concert we enjoyed 14 April 2019 was a simply lovely concert. If you ever get a chance to see them, we really do recommend them highly.