Choirs and early music enthusiasts are celebrating the 400th anniversary of William Byrd’s death this year and among the new releases in honour of “the father of British music” is a gem of an album from the young and dynamic Gesualdo Six under their director Owain Park.

The group – countertenor Guy James; tenors Joseph Wicks and Josh Cooter; baritone Michael Craddock and basses Samuel Mitchell and Park – have come up through the English cathedral tradition and they made their stunning Australian debut earlier this year in an intimate concert at Sydney Opera House’s Utzon Room. On that occasion Byrd’s motet Ave verum corpus was performed amid the audience, with the four soloists in an inward-facing square, before the complete ensemble sang Afflicti pro peccatis nostris,  the six voices sounding marvellous, each one full of character and individuality and yet making for a seamless blend.

That is how this album starts as well, and there is no better introduction to the main work on the program, the austere, compactly-made Mass for Five...