‘Other ensembles have marked the Byrd anniversary with celebratory, large-scale offerings; The Gesualdo Six opt for the five-voice Mass, framed by penitential motets. The last and most richly scored of Byrd’s Masses offers perhaps the greatest scope for interpretation, with shifts and contrasts of texture to the fore, encompassing both two-voice writing and opulent chordal statements. It is a special strength of this recording that The Gesualdo Six sound pellucid and grand and yet intimate, as though combining two approaches. That’s down to a sound recording that feels very closely miked … and of course—almost needless to say by now—to the wonderful blend of sound the singers achieve. These qualities come through especially strongly in Circumdederunt me, whose special ending (or, rather, the minute or so preceding it) is a highlight; so is the expressive opening out that the singers bring to the phrase ‘dolores mortis’’ (Gramophone)
‘Their sound is so intensely beautiful, perfectly tuned and resonanced: the way the vocal lines unfold in Byrd’s Mass for five voices, and the way they control the final flowering of the Agnus Dei, is beautiful to hear, quietly ecstatic. It’s a well-made programme—you get the movements of the Mass interwoven with Byrd’s motets and it makes an excellent four hundredth anniversary for him’ (BBC Record Review)
‘Pure in tone, intonation impeccable, the Gesualdo Six sing with precision and fluency, every line of polyphony audible. The Sixteen, the Tallis Scholars, Winchester Cathedral Choir and others have made top recordings of this repertoire. The chamber scale of the Gesualdo Six creates an authentic intimacy for works that might well have risked the lives of those who performed it’ (The Guardian)
‘Interweaving Byrd's Mass for five voices, which dates from the mid-1590s, with a handful of the composer's motets (Ave verum corpus and Circumdederunt me among them), this beautifully sung and recorded disc captures supremely well the stillness at the heart of the Mass, which was written for secret Catholic worship during the reign of Elizabeth I’ (The Sunday Times)
‘The Gesualdo Six sounds more apt and atmospheric and their reduced number better suits the simpler, more direct means of communication Byrd favours here as opposed to the more florid, 'continental' mode of his European contemporaries … the homogeneity of the group is impeccable and the contrast between those passages in the mass where Byrd reduces or changes the number of voices involved and when the full consort of six sings together in full voice is very apparent’ (MusicWeb International)
» More«William Byrd et sa Mass for five voices concentrent la dernière fournée des Gesualdo Six. La formation chambriste masculine d’Owain Park donne à l’oeuvre un aspect discret, intime, sans doute en adéquation avec le caractère secret qu’elle revêtait—l’époque était très hostile au catholicisme dont cette messe et son auteur se réclament. Dans les motets glissés en complément, les entrelacs harmoniques de l’Ave verum et l’expressivité stupéfiante du Circumdederunt qui captent l’attention, offrant un visage plus complexe de Byrd, à l’image de leur écriture contrapuntique» (Diapason, France)
