UK-based, The Gesualdo Six are masters of a cappella vocal music, offering a diverse repertoire encompassing early medieval song and Renaissance polyphony through to present-day composition.

Formed in 2014 by Owain Park, the ensemble comprises two counter-tenors, Guy James and Alasdair Austin; two tenors, Joseph Wicks and Josh Cooter; baritone Simon Grant; and Park’s bass.

An ensemble of impeccable and distinctive style, the musicians deliver their well-honed repertoire at the highest level of skill and accomplishment, with remarkable finesse. Each singer demonstrates excellent diction and astonishing breath control, creating a marvellous, richly blended sonority. The individual vocal lines weave seamlessly together to produce truly wondrous harmonies. Their musicianship is breathtaking.

The Gesualdo Six, Concert Hall, QPAC. Photo © Brit Creative

The G6’s Wishing Tree program includes a wide range of Renaissance songs, including fine madrigals by Byrd and Gibbons. Byrd’s This Sweet and Merry Month of May opens the concert with soaring counter-tenor lines and impressive, rock-solid six-part harmonies. Gibbons’ best-known madrigal, the mournful The Silver Swan, likewise showcases the exquisite sonorities of the genre.

The program then turns to contemporary works inspired by earlier traditions. Anna Semple’s modern adaptation of My Bonny Lies for counter-tenors and tenors is sung with lightness and delicacy. Its melodic yearning, with each singer taking an independent vocal line, proves deeply affecting.

Sarah Rimkus’ My Heart Is Like a Singing Bird, which won The Gesualdo Six’s first composition competition in 2016, offers contrasting duets, first for the higher voices and then the lower. An expressive work with many harmonic shifts, it ends on a moving, sustained tenor note.

Winner of the ensemble’s second composition competition, Alison Willis’ The Wind’s Warning, based on Ivor Gurney’s bleak final poem, is both finely crafted and superbly delivered. The counter-tenor soars effortlessly above the ensemble’s vocalisations, which evoke the restless movement of the wind.

Arrangements of period songs, many drawn from the English folk tradition, follow. A tale of love and longing, Vaughan Williams’ Bushes and Briars is imbued with his characteristic shifting textures and a delicious four-part harmony. James Whitbourn’s The Lark in the Clear Air, based on an Irish folksong, takes a simple, ravishing melody and encases it within a shimmering musical depiction of the natural world.

Gordon Langford’s The Oak and the Ash, with its undulating melodies and wide harmonic range, provides another richly satisfying example of the ensemble’s beautifully blended sound.

The program’s title comes from Jody Talbot’s Wishing Tree, a work of unusual textures. Short bursts of narrative from the three upper voices are answered by equally brief phrases from the lower voices. The effect is managed with great aplomb and impressive dynamic control.

The Gesualdo Six, Concert Hall, QPAC. Photo © Brit Creative

A delightful frottola (a secular Italian song) by Josquin des Prez, El Grillo provides a welcome change of pace. Sustained long notes are interspersed with the quick chattering that mimics a cricket’s song, making for a performance that is both playful and expertly judged.

Park introduces the music with a light-hearted, self-deprecating charm that is clearly appreciated by the audience. The repertoire moves effortlessly between changing vocal combinations of three, four and five singers, many featuring rewarding solo passages.

Given the ensemble’s exceptional cohesion and close-knit musicality, no individual singer emerges above the others, although the counter-tenors and tenors naturally carry much of the musical material. There is comparatively less repertoire for the darker baritone and bass voices, lending a degree of sameness to the overall soundscape. Nevertheless, the program is thoughtfully conceived and performed with exceptional artistry.

Full credit goes to the Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC) for bringing such a distinguished specialist ensemble to Brisbane for its Queensland debut. Warmly received with an enthusiastic ovation and rewarded with a heart-warming encore, The Gesualdo Six leave a lasting impression, confirming themselves as one of the finest vocal ensembles performing today and making a compelling case for a swift return.