Tag: Nicolas Gombert

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.

The Mysterious Motet Book of 1539, Siglo De Oro, Wigmore Hall, 8 October 2022

The concert and talk were partly promoting this album – naturally we obliged on the day.

We attended this very tasty lunchtime concert and pre-concert discussion.

The noon-time discussion was between Patrick Allies, the artistic director of Siglo De Oro and Dr Daniel Trocmé-Latter, the academic whose work on the context and musical transcription of this “Mysterious Motet Book of 1539″initiated the project.

I found the information about the development of part books as printing became widespread in the Renaissance and the distinction between Protestant and Catholic liturgical music at the time of the Reformation fascinating.

“Cantiones quinque vocum selectissimae,” CRIM, accessed October 8, 2022, https://ricercar.crim.cesr.univ-tours.fr/items/show/3366

Less convincing, to me, was the “mystery” aspect of the project, the conceit of which is, if I might paraphrase, “why might a publisher such as Peter Schöffer the Younger choose to publish a music book of Latin liturgical songs from Milan…in Strasbourg, which was, by 1539, a strongly Protestant town?”

It is well documented that King Ferdinand of Germany granted Schöffer a specific privilege to publish these works. Further, as Daniel Trocmé-Latter himself states in his book on the Singing of Strasbourg Protestants, Schöffer dedicates the publication to Ferdinand with a glowing dedication listing the King’s many titles and exalting him. It seems reasonable to guess that King Ferdinand wanted Schöffer to publish this work in Strasbourg and that Schöffer might have received some favour or favours from the King for doing so.

Keep King Ferdy onside for goodness sake

I was most excited when I worked out that King Ferdinand I was the great-great-great-great grandson of Philip The Bold, whose musical adventures I had been scouring and talking about only a few weeks ago:

Philip The Bold: Wine, Tennis & Song – A Performance Symposium First Presented At The Real Tennis Society Conference During The World Championships,  Prested Hall, 13 September 2022

Much like his illustrious Burgundian ancestors, Ferdinand seems to have been interested in tennis as well as music. Ferdinand was also evidently impressed by Milanese cultural style in several ways, not just liturgical music. He was also, reputationally, a conciliator between Protestants and the Catholics in his lands.

Still, if the purpose of promoting this music as “a mysterious publication” is as conduit for wonderful concerts and premier recordings of several of the pieces form the motet book…bring it on! It’s a thriller.

Here is a link to the concert programme.

The music in the concert was lovely. Janie and I both loved it. They mixed and matched between motets from that 1539 book and some more familiar, later pieces, e.g. by Byrd and Tallis, by way of contrast and comparison, which worked well musically.

Siglo de Oro don’t put much in the public domain, but the sample below is downloadable from the website plugging the album, so you might as well hear Johannes Lupi: Apparens Christus below before you click through and buy the almum.

Lovely, eh?

Enough rabbit from me – it’s time to eat some dinner and listen to that lovely CD we bought as we left the Wigmore Hall.

Treasures Of The Renaissance – Masterpieces From The Golden Age Of Choral Music, Stile Antico, 11 May 2014

Just gorgeous, this concert was.

Here is a link to the helpful Wigmore Hall calendar note that tells you exactly what we saw.

This was Renaissance choral music at its best.

Barry Millington in the Evening Standard gave the gig this rave review – click here.

Below is a vid of Stile Antico, singing Ego flos campi by Jacobus Clemens non papa, which was the second piece they sang to us and which gives a very good sense of their glorious sound:

Coincidentally, the above recording was made at the Old Royal Naval College which I shall be visiting in a few day’s time (as I write in January 2018), although not for music purposes.

For those who are not blessed with Latin scholarship, “Ego flos campi” means, “I maintain my oral hygiene when I go camping”…

…although those words are occasionally mistranslated by so-called experts as, “I am the flower of the field”.

Anyway, enough of scholarship. Janie and I had enjoyed an early music oriented weekend from start (Joanna MacGregor tinkling the Goldberg on the Friday) to finish – we had no complaints about that.

Play that vid again, go on…gorgeous it is.