The Gesualdo Six is an award-winning British vocal ensemble comprising some of the UK’s finest consort singers, directed by Owain Park. Praised for their imaginative programming and impeccable blend, the group formed in 2014 for a performance of Gesualdo’s ‘Tenebrae Responsories’ in Cambridge and has gone on to perform at numerous major festivals around the world.
For this concert, the group join forces with trumpeter Matilda Lloyd who last performed for Skipton Music with the Solus Trumpet Ensemble in April 2022. Together they present a stunning programme entitled ‘Radiant Dawn’ that explores different shades of light through music. Works from the Golden Age of polyphony by Tallis and White are juxtaposed with modern compositions by Roxanna Panufnik, Alec Roth and Deborah Pritchard. Highlights include Sir James MacMillan’s In splendoribus sanctorum, a meditative and atmospheric setting from the composer’s ‘Strathclyde Motets’, alongside Richard Barnard’s Aura, co-commissioned by the artists.
To find out more see The Gesualdo Six & Matilda Lloyd
Photo credits: Ash Mills & Geoffroy Schied
With support from a generous legacy by Dr Philip da Costa
Rich Contrasts at Skipton Music
Skipton Music’s 2024-25 season continued with another deeply impressive concert, offering the rich contrasts between the vocal consort The Gesualdo Six and the trumpeter Matilda Lloyd in a programme largely specially arranged or composed for this combination.
The Gesualdo Six already have a well-earned reputation for their rich tone and sensitive interpretation of the music of the Renaissance; and equally Matilda has been building an international career as one of today’s foremost virtuosos of the trumpet. But how would such – apparently very different – musical idioms blend together? The answer was in a variety of different but all totally convincing ways: sometimes the trumpet would soar above the consort, almost like an additional wordless singer; sometimes the trumpet was starkly opposed to the voices, with exuberant fanfares contrasting with their smoother harmonies.
With so many delights on offer it is hard to single out any individual items, but I was especially impressed by ‘grandmother moon’ by the Canadian composer Eleanor Daley; and by the contrasting pieces which opened the two halves of the concert, the sumptuous sonorities of Tallis’ ‘O nata lux’ and the haunting cluster-chord harmonies of Roxanna Panufnik’s ‘O hearken’. The performance of James MacMillan’s ‘in splendoribus’, with the imaginative use of the spaces of Skipton’s Town Hall to enhance the quiet ending, brought the concert to a rapt end.
Charles Dobson