‘Composer or serial killer?’ was a popular game on the ABC’s Spicks and Specks show. Italian nobleman Carlo Gesualdo was both: a prolific composer who murdered his wife and her lover in cold / hot blood.

The acclaimed English consort, The Gesualdo Six, specialises in unaccompanied vocal music with repertoire that stretches from Renaissance times to the present day. Musically, Gesualdo was centuries ahead of his time, so his music is both a pinnacle of Renaissance music and a bridge to contemporary forms.

On this tour, The Gesualdo Six collaborated with the Melbourne-based Australian Boys Choir to present a joint program. The Choir opened the concert with an energetic and cohesive performance of two Australian works: Out There, an atmospheric piece by Dan Walker, and Dulcie Holland’s lively and ever-popular song, Sailing Time.

Owain Park, Josh Cooter and Simon Grant of The Gesualdo Six. Photo © Pat Charles

The Six made their entrance from the balcony with Purcell’s soul-searching hymn, Thou Knowest Lord The Secrets of Our Hearts. The whole church fell silent. They sustained the meditative mood with John Taverner’s Funeral Ikos and Gesualdo’s Plange quasi virgo (Weep like a virgin), weaving their way from the balcony to the main performance space as they sang.

There followed a series of contemporary works by English, American and Canadian composers, in which the Six displayed their distinctive, blended sound and, in the solos, the contrasting colours of the individual voices.

The Australian Boys Choir. Photo © Pat Charles

The Choir returned after interval to give an evocative performance of Past Life Melodies, an 11-part meditative work by contemporary Australian composer, Sarah Hopkins, which called for harmonic overtone singing and a sustained, rather eerie treble part.

The Gesualdo Six’ artistic director Owain Park gave a modest introduction to a bracket of songs that included his own work, Louisa, based on Wordsworth’s poem.

Pure tenor solo, atmospheric, gentle, tender Surging, warm … and a lovely fading ending

Four of The Six then performed El Grillo, a jocular 16th century piece (frottola) about a cricket by Josquin de Prez. Then the full complement of The Gesualdo Six performed an elegant arrangement of the English folk song The Oak and the Ash by Gordon Langford.

The two ensembles combined for the finale, Crossing the Bar, by Dr Calvin Bowman, a notable Australian composer and St Andrew’s organist. A warm and uplifting setting of Tennyson’s poem, which concerns the metaphorical sandbar between mortal life and the afterlife, it marked an inclusive end to a polished program.

The Gesualdo Six perform at St Peter’s Cathedral Adelaide on 27 June, at UKARIA CUltural Centre (28 June) and at Queensland Performing Arts Centre, Brisbane on 28 June. Details and booking links here.