Mixed voice adult choirs have given us new perspectives on the trove of Renaissance choral music over the past 30 years or so. The Clerkes of Oxenford, for instance; then the Tallis Scholars, Tenebrae, the Sixteen, and Polyphony: transformative choirs that are now joined by, among many others, Voces8 and Stile Antico.
The Gesualdo Six are different. This is an adult male choir, formed in 2014, currently comprising Alex Chance, Josh Cooter, Michael Craddock, Guy James, Samuel Mitchell and Joseph Wicks, and led by the prize-winning organist, singer and composer, Owain Park. The sound we hear is one that was more familiar to Renaissance listeners than it is to us: of adult male singers covering more or less the full compass of a choir of men and boys or girls. The first professional recording of the Gesualdo Six goes straight to the beating, and often troubled, heart of the English Renaissance, both Protestant and Catholic, in Latin and English.
