Having already recorded a successful Christmas album (entitled
Christmas, in 2019),
The Gesualdo Six here turn to music for the Epiphany season. The album was released in advance of Christmas and is emerging as one of the top holiday albums of 2023, landing on classical best-seller lists in autumn of that year.
The Gesualdo Six is one of the top small vocal groups on the scene, but they may have outdone themselves with this release, which combines many virtues. The combination of chants (which frame pieces embodying the various ideas in the Feast of the Epiphany), Renaissance works, and contemporary pieces is familiar enough, but director
Owain Park devises compelling performances in each area, including chant singing that is anything but pro forma. There isn't a familiar piece in the bunch, but after hearing the program, listeners will feel that they know the music deeply. There are German and English pieces. The Renaissance works include
Maria wallt zum Heiligtum of
Johannes Eccard (1533-1611), who, one learns from
Park's excellent notes, was greatly admired by
Johannes Brahms. There is only one piece, by
Herbert Howells, from the middle 20th century and none from the 19th, less than is usual on both counts for this kind of program. However,
Park has chosen gorgeous contemporary works, a couple of them (one psalm and one arrangement of an anonymous hymn) by
Park himself. Sample the absolutely deliciously sung
In Winter's House by
Joanna Marsh. The singing, as usual with
The Gesualdo Six, is nonpareil, with distinctive phrasing that seems to make notes hang in the air; hear the
Arvo Paert work that gives the album its title and is entirely distinctively performed.
Hyperion's sound from the Trinity College Chapel is precise and clear. This is a rigorous release, in a way, but it may be recommended to any listener wanting to hear something new for the holiday season. ~ James Manheim
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