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Penance & prayer<div> The Gesualdo Six</div><div> Owain Park, bass & direction</div><div> Guy James, countertenor</div><div> Alasdair Austin, countertenor</div><div> Joseph Wicks, tenor</div><div> Josh Cooter, tenor</div><div> Simon Grant, baritone</div><div><br></div><div> <strong>On the agenda:</strong></div><div> Tallis, Palestrina, Victoria, Byrd, Desprez...</div><div> Penance and Prayer</div><div><br></div><div> Penitential music offers particularly fertile themes for musical setting: sorrow, remorse, supplication to the Lord—these subjects open up abysses of spiritual and philosophical meditation, often resonating with the concerns of the composers themselves. The Renaissance constitutes, in this domain, a veritable golden age that The Gesualdo Six invites us to discover or rediscover. At the heart of this program are Robert White's poignant Lamentations of Jeremiah, with lines as pure as they are desolate, finding a welcome echo in masterpieces by Byrd, Victoria, and Guerrero, not forgetting the later but no less moving Crucifixus by Lotti. It goes without saying that The Gesualdo Six prove themselves worthy heirs to the greatest English polyphonic ensembles, with striking perfection as well as that expressive intensity that is uniquely their own.</div>