Radiant Dawn The Gesualdo Six & Owain Park

• Alec Roth (b. 1948):
• 1 Roth: Night Prayer 03:29
• Thomas Tallis (1505 - 1585):
• 2 Tallis: O nata lux de lumine 02:09
• Eleanor Daley (b. 1955):
• 3 Daley: Grandmother Moon 04:03
• Deborah Pritchard (b. 1977):
• 4 Pritchard: The Light Thereof 04:48
• James MacMillan (b. 1959):
• 5 MacMillan: The Strathclyde Motets: O Radiant Dawn 04:21
• Thomas Tallis:
• 6 Tallis: Dum transisset Sabbatum 07:28
• Hildegard von Bingen (1098 - 1179):
• 7 Hildegard von Bingen: O gloriosissimi lux 02:09
• Roxanna Panufnik (b. 1968):
• 8 Panufnik: O Hearken 02:21
• Robert White (1538 - 1579):
• 9 White: Christe, qui lux es et dies II 05:17
• Richard Barnard (b. 1977):
• 10 Barnard: Aura 06:44
• Judith Bingham (b. 1952):
• 11 Bingham: Enter Ghost 07:21
• Owain Park (b. 1993):
• 12 Park: Sommernacht 04:12
• Josef Rheinberger (1839 - 1901):
• 13 Rheinberger: 3 Geistliche Gesänge, Op. 69: No. 3, Abendlied 03:13
• James MacMillan:
• 14 MacMillan: The Strathclyde Motets: In splendoribus sanctorum 10:00
• Geoffrey Burgon (1941 - 2010):
• 15 Burgon: Nunc dimittis (1979 A Cappella Version) 03:17
• Total Runtime 01:10:52

Info for Radiant Dawn

The Gesualdo Six explore different aspects of light and shade—musical evocations of dawn and dusk, the seasonal and the sacred—by composers from Saint Hildegard, writing in the twelfth century, to Owain Park in the twenty-first. The participation of trumpeter Matilda Lloyd, whether soaring above or blending with the voices, makes this a G6 album like no other.

From religious processions to military victories, the combination of voices and trumpet has played a prominent role in concerts and ritual for centuries. We have found it a joy to work with trumpeter Matilda Lloyd to bring this programme to life, alongside several composers who have created new pieces for this collection.

On this album, we explore different shades of light through music, capturing moments across the spectrum, from the soft, golden glow of a summer evening as shadows lengthen to the shimmering of moonlight on calm waters. Some texts contrast the terror of darkness with the brilliance of dazzling sunlight; others explore the blurred boundaries between heaven and earth. Plainchant threads this programme together—sometimes finely woven into the structural framework, and at other times as a fragment of the composer’s imagination.

Alec Roth’s Night prayer reflects on the Compline hymn Te lucis ante terminum, a favourite with composers for its contemplative, scalic lines. Each verse presents the Latin text as a two-part canon, which weaves in and out of the English translation. The Latin and English chants unfold at different speeds, creating an interplay that blurs the vocal lines, ethereal as lingering incense. In the final verse the trumpet soars luminously above the voices as an instrumental ‘vocalise’ and descant.

The intimate and prayerful text of O nata lux originates from the tenth century and is traditionally associated with the Feast of the Transfiguration, which commemorates the moment in the Gospels when the disciples witness Jesus radiant with divine light, clothed in angelic splendour. In his setting, Thomas Tallis captures the text’s spiritual intensity in music that is both passionate and harmonically rich. A hallmark of his style, the use of false relations—bristling clashes between chromatically opposing notes—adds a disorienting feeling as the harmonic ground momentarily shifts.

Grandmother moon is a setting of a mystical text by Mary Louise Martin, a Mi’kmaq poet who lives on a small island in British Columbia. Her words describe the serene beauty and tranquillity of a full moon on a clear night, and the poem closes with the word ‘we’lalin’, an expression of gratitude in the Mi’kmaq language. Eleanor Daley paints a vivid musical landscape, using arch-shaped musical phrases which evoke the soft dappling of moonlight on murmuring waters. ...

The Gesualdo Six
Owain Park, musical director

The Gesualdo Six
is an award-winning British vocal ensemble comprising some of the UK’s finest consort singers, directed by Owain Park. Praised for imaginative programming and impeccable blend, the ensemble formed in 2014 for a performance of Gesualdo’s Tenebrae Responsories in Cambridge and has gone on to perform at numerous major festivals across the UK, Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand. Notable highlights include a concert in the distinguished Deutschlandradio Debut Series, performances at Wigmore Hall (London) and Miller Theatre (New York), and collaborations with Fretwork, the Brodsky Quartet, London Mozart Players, Luxmuralis, William Barton and Matilda Lloyd.

The ensemble integrates educational work into its activities, regularly holding workshops for young musicians and composers. The Gesualdo Six has curated two Composition Competitions, with the 2019 edition attracting entries from over 300 composers around the world. The group has commissioned new works from Joanna Ward, Kerensa Briggs, Deborah Pritchard, Joanna Marsh, Shruthi Rajasekar and Richard Barnard, and coronasolfège for 6 by Héloïse Werner.

Videos of the ensemble performing a diverse selection of works filmed in Ely Cathedral have been watched by millions online. The group released its debut recording English Motets on Hyperion in 2018 to critical acclaim. This was followed by Christmas, a festive album of seasonal favourites; Fading, a collection of Compline-themed music; Josquin’s legacy, exploring pedagogy and patronage at courts in Renaissance Italy; Gesualdo’s Tenebrae Responsories for Maundy Thursday, inspired by the darkness and shadows of Holy Week; Lux aeterna, which illustrates musical responses to grief; and Byrd’s Mass for five voices.

Owain Park
was born in Bristol in 1993. As well as directing The Gesualdo Six, he maintains a busy schedule of conducting projects with ensembles including the London Mozart Players, Southbank Sinfonia, the Academy of Ancient Music and Capella Cracoviensis. Owain is Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Singers and formerly Musical Director of Cambridge Chorale.

Owain’s compositions are published by Novello and have been performed internationally by ensembles including The Tallis Scholars and Aurora Orchestra. While at Cambridge University, he studied orchestration with John Rutter, before undertaking a master’s degree in composition. He is Composer-in-Residence for the London Choral Sinfonia, and was one of BBC Radio 3’s ‘31 under 31 Young Stars 2020’. An album of his compositions recorded by The Choir of Trinity College Cambridge was nominated for the 2019 BBC Music Magazine Awards. In 2020 the Epiphoni Consort released When Love speaks, an album of his secular choral works.

Owain is a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists (FRCO) and was awarded the Dixon Prize for Improvisation, having been Senior Organ Scholar at Wells Cathedral and Trinity College Cambridge. He was a Tenebrae Associate Artist for two seasons, and has worked with ensembles such as The Sixteen, the Gabrieli Consort and Polyphony.

Booklet for Radiant Dawn