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Track(s) taken from CDA68388

I take thee

composer
2020; AATTBB; composed for The Gesualdo Six
author of text

The Gesualdo Six, Owain Park (director)
Studio Master FLAC & ALAC downloads available
CD-Quality:
Studio Master:
CD-Quality:
Studio Master:
Recording details: May 2021
All Hallows, Gospel Oak, London, United Kingdom
Produced by Adrian Peacock
Engineered by David Hinitt
Release date: September 2022
Total duration: 3 minutes 55 seconds
 

Reviews

‘As always with The Gesualdo Six, the thing that strikes one most forcibly on first listening is the ensemble’s extraordinary vocal blend … the collection, centring on the theme of grief, is extremely well organised in terms of both contrast and similarity (of style and period), and I do recommend listening to it from beginning to end. Richard Rodney Bennett’s sumptuous A Good-Night provides a wholly appropriate finale to this thought-provoking journey’ (Gramophone)

‘This affecting collection contains music for mourning and remembrance … the great experience and skill of these singers provide perfect tuning in pieces such as Tallis’s In ieiunio (sung at low pitch) and superb phrasal breathing (especially in Morales’s Parce mihi)’ (BBC Music Magazine)» More

‘Vocal ensemble The Gesualdo Six is known for its Renaissance polyphony, with lucid and hauntingly beautiful performances of Josquin, Gesualdo, Tallis and the like, but with their album Fading—a couple of years ago—they began combining ancient and modern music with themes of darkness and light. Their new recording, Lux aeterna, takes this further: eternal light, an exploration of grief, musical responses to mourning and loss, uncertainty and hope. It’s a strikingly effective sequence … [A Good-Night is] a touching way to end this beautifully sequenced exploration of different sides of mourning and loss … six centuries of music, beautifully recorded’ (BBC Record Review)

‘A concatenation of music that delivers what it set out to do: exploring shades of positivity and the hope that the good someone has brought into the world will live on after they have passed. Perceptively and sensitively performed with outstanding musicality. Quite simply exquisite’ (Yorkshire Times)
I take thee was composed by Joanna Marsh for The Gesualdo Six in 2020 as a commissioned gift from Stephen Bence to his wife of ten years, Ayesha Vardag. The text by Imtiaz Dharker celebrates significant moments in our lives, focusing on commitment and happiness. The work is in Marsh’s typically inventive harmonic style, opening out into rich added-note chords before subsiding to unisons. This tension and release almost feels like breathing. A beautiful passage in the text, ‘taking our tea with buttered / hope’, is wonderfully set here, full of joy and laughter.

from notes by Owain Park © 2022

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