Gesualdo Six | Hemispheres
June 21, 2026, St James’ Church, Sydney, NSW
- Owain Park: Director and Bass
- Guy James: Countertenor
- Alasdair Austin: Countertenor
- Joseph Wicks: Tenor
- Josh Cooter: Tenor
- Simon Grant: Baritone
I have been following the Gesualdo Six online since coming across them a few years back, being instantly drawn in by their name – after renaissance composer Carlo Gesualdo – and staying for their pristine sound and mastery of vocal consort singing. I was therefore particularly delighted to be able to hear them here in Sydney, alongside the wonderful choir of St James’ Church King Street, one of Sydney’s best. Having mostly heard the Gesualdo Six in recordings of early music on YouTube, I was pleasantly surprised to see that eight of the ten works listed on the program were written after 1900, with five of those being by living composers. This made the composer side of me very happy!
The program was divided into two parts. The first was sung by just the Gesualdo Six, and as director Owain Park explained, contained works from their Wishing Tree set, all of which were connected in some way to nature. The first work was Byrd’s This sweet and merry month of May, a joyous madrigal full of rhythmic vitality, immediately showcasing the Gesualdo Six’s excellent technical ability. This was followed by David Bednall’s Put out into the deep, a work that set text from Luke’s account of the calling of Jesus’ Apostles. The work began by evoke plainchant aesthetics, developing into organum-like textures, busy polyphony, and back to five-part organum-like/homophonic textures. The work was full of colourful harmony with brilliant twists and surprises, and provided rich solo moments, particularly with Park acting as a powerful bass narrator.
Following this was one of two folk song arrangements in the program, here by Vaughan Williams. His Bushes and Briars presented beautiful hymn-like textures, sung sensitively, and with perfect intonation by a quartet of lower voices (Wicks, Cooter, Grant, and Park). Next was a particularly interesting and compelling work by Alison Willis titled The Wind’s Warning. The work began with gushes of wind from the ensemble as the full Gesualdo Six sextet walked back into position in the church’s sanctuary. Out of these emerged the luminous upper voices of the ensemble, with voices and gushes of wind weaving in and out of the texture throughout. Particularly notable were beautiful solo and duet moments from countertenors Guy James and Alasdair Austin, followed by the ominous and haunting oscillating textures of the ‘wind’s warning’, and the return of the gushes of wind that opened the work.
After this was Joby Talbot’s entrancing The Wishing Tree, driven by a syncopated hocket texture, alternating between the ensemble’s luminous upper voices and powerful lower voices. Indeed, when director Park introduced the work, he challenged the audience to identify the meter they were singing in (my answer is some sort of six!). These textures and complex rhythms were sung effortlessly by the ensemble and once again showcased the Gesualdo Six’s amazing musical and technical abilities. Closing off the Gesualdo Six’s solo section of the concert was another folk song arrangement, this time Gordon Langford’s The Oak and the Ash, featuring wonderfully sung solo lines over gentle hums, and returning to the stillness of earlier works in the program.
The following half of the concert saw the Gesualdo Six joined by the Choir of St James’ and began with the O vos omnes a 5 of Gesualdo (after whom the ensemble was named). The work was filled with Gesualdo’s characteristic harmonic twists and turns, some of which would not have been seen in music for hundreds of years! Here, we were treated to twenty-six voices singing unconducted and perfectly in sync, with radiant intonation and a huge powerful sound.
The work that followed, the Phos hilaron of Gesualdo Six’s own Owain Park, was a moment of pure spiritual transcendence. As Park explained, the work takes its text from an ancient hymn sung by candlelight during the service of Compline (night prayer). The work had spatial elements to it, with the choir positioned at the front of the church, and the Gesualdo Six in the middle of the church, facing them. The work began with Gesualdo Six as soloists and the choir acting as distant resonators. Countertenor James walked up to the front of church from where he sang a hauntingly beautiful, sustained, and resonant chant-like solo, over soft gentle hums from the rest of the singers. This was answered by powerful choral outbursts with wonderfully surprising harmonic twists, and luminous sonorities. The Gesualdo Six antiphonally weaved in and out of these textures with a repeated mantra of “let my prayer rise before you like incense”, which effectively evoked rising incense. Parks masterful writing evoked ancient Orthodox chant and created moments of pure stunning stillness.
It was wonderful to that the following work on the program was Praise the Lord by Australian composer Brooke Shelley, full of bouncy driven antiphonal textures that were almost madrigal-esque, effectively navigated by the combined ensemble. The final work on the program, was William Walton’s The Twelve, a brilliant and mammoth work that was sung from the choir stalls as if we were at an evensong service. It was masterfully accompanied by Marko Sever on the church’s new bicentennial organ, with loud powerful chords, and driving Stravinskian rhythms. The singing by the combined ensemble was excellent, with many great solos, including from the St James’ choir. Walton’s writing was brilliant, full of interest, variety, vitality, and colour.
To finish of the program, the audience was treated to a surprise rendition of Rheinberger’s famous Abendlied, and the text “Blieb bei uns, denn es will Abend werden” (stay with us, as the evening is coming) marked a poignant end to the Sydney leg of the Gesualdo Six’s Australian Tour. The entire program was met with thunderous applause from a packed audience. The quality of music from both the Gesualdo Six, and the St James’ choir was extremely high and all involved are due much praise!
