The Renaissance came late to England. But its cultural rebirth was just as painful as Italy’s, which had started a century earlier. From the 15th to the 17th centuries, rulers and religions came and went. And it was from these strange rhythms and unsettling harmonies that the sacred vocal music of the period often took its cue, whether Catholic or Protestant.

The Gesualdo Six. Photo © Ash Mills

UK vocal ensemble The Gesualdo Six’s director and bass Owain Park admitted he would like to have given Saturday afternoon’s Perth Festival Chamber Music Weekend audience an example of all the English motet styles of the time. But then it would have been a nine-hour concert, instead of just one.

So, together with the ensemble’s other members – countertenor Guy James, tenors Joseph Wicks and Josh Cooter, baritone Michael Craddock and bass Samuel Mitchell – Park provided more a lean, refined degustation than a full-on Henry VIII-style banquet. One that definitely left you wanting more.

Appropriately enough, four works of that musical giant of the period, William Byrd (1543-1623), bookended the program; at its heart lay two works by Byrd’s teacher, the incomparable Thomas Tallis (1505-1585). The...