Queen of Hearts
The Gesualdo Six/Owain Park
rec. 2023, St. George’s Church, Chesterton, Cambridge, UK
Hyperion CDA68453 [67]

I have only heard two of the nine discs which the all-male group The Gesualdo Six recorded for Hyperion. I have been missing out on very fine singing.

The title Queen of Hearts refers first of all to the Virgin Mary, but other elements also feed into the album’s concept. Director Owain Park says that the 2021 disc Josquin’s Legacy opened up other possibilities he wanted to explore. One possibility was to delve into four fascinating manuscripts, three of them located in the United Kingdom. Guy James’s well researched booklet note goes through the background of each manuscript and its relation to the music here.

Margaret of Austria (1480-1530) commissioned music by some most important European contemporary composers. Also represented here are works from the Pepys Manuscript kept at Magdalen College, Cambridge (for example Dulcis amica Dei by Johannes Prioris), the Henry VIII Manuscript (for example Fors seulement by Antoine de Fevin) and the Anne Boleyn Music Book (for example Josquin’s powerful Praeter rerum seriem).

Lives of three women fall within the album’s varied range. Anne of Brittany is remembered in the wonderfully moving Quis dabit oculis by Constanzo Festa. Anne Boleyn, who attended Mary Tudor at court, is commemorated with a dark setting by Owain Park himself, Prière pour Marie; it reflects on Mary’s journey to France to marry Louis XII. And there are what Park calls regretz chansons, mostly written for Margaret (for example Josquin’s famous Mille regretz and Pierre de la Rue’s Secretz regretz). Thus French court music made its way into English manuscripts.

A typical example of a regretz chanson is Nicholas Gombert’s passionate setting of Tout le regretz: ‘All the regrets there have been in the world / come to me wherever I may be. / Take my heart in its grief profound / and break it so that suddenly she sees.’

The notes also discuss the motet-chanson, such as a setting of Consommo la vita mia by Prioris. It was performed, it is thought, on the death of Anne of Brittany. There are Marian motets, including a Salve Regina by Jean Lheritier.

It is commendable when early-music specialists recognise how important it is to commission and sing new works. In addition to the piece by Owain Park, there is a work set to Plaisir n’ai plus by the Renaissance poet Clément Marot, associated with Marguerite of Navarre. The setting by Ninfea Cruttwell-Reade,  a British composer and cellist based in Edinburgh, is often homophonic, and has a Renaissance character to suit the deeply expressive text.

Antoine Brumel set a fragment of chapter 2 of The Song of Songs, Sicut lilium inter spina (As a lily among thorns is my friend among the maidens). And here is a track which sums up the sheer beauty of The Gesualdo Six’s sense of ensemble: Jean Mouton’s Tota pulcra es, apparently their favourite.

One may wonder why The Gesualdo Six conclude with a seven-part motet. Well, that is because they wanted to involve bass Sam Mitchell, a long-time member of the group who is moving on, and their new countertenor Alisdair Austin. They chose Jacobus Clemens non Papa’s motet Ego flos campi (I am the rose of Sharon and the lily of the valley) also from chapter 2 of The Song of Songs.

Not surprisingly, the general mood of much of the programme is serious and solemn, so it may be best not to listen to it all at once. Even so, the performances are immaculate, sensitive, committed and moving. I do not hesitate to recommend the disc to those who love wonderful vocal ensembles.

Gary Higginson

If you purchase this recording using a link below, it generates revenue for MWI and helps us maintain free access to the site

Contents
Antoine Brumel (c.1460-1513)
Sub tuum praesidium
Josquin des Prez (c.1450-1521)
Praeter rerum seriem
Loyset Compèe (c.1445-1518)
Plaine d’ennuy / Anima mea
Josquin des Prez
Mille regretz
Antoine Brumel
Sicut lilium inter spinas
Pierre de la Rue (c.1452-1518)
Secretz regretz
Costanzo Festa (c1485/90-1545)
Quis dabit oculis?
Owain Park (b. 1993)
Prière pour Marie
Antoine Brumel
Du tout plongiet / Fors seulement
Antonius Divitis (c.1470-c.1530)
Ista est speciosa
Johannes Prioris (fl. c.1485-1512)
Dulcis amica Dei
Jean Mouton (1459-1522)
Tota pulcra est
Jean Lheritier (c.1480-after 1551)
Salve Regina
Ninfea Cruttwell-Reade (b. 1989)
Plaisir n’ai plus
Jean Mouton 
De tous regretz
Antoine de Fevin (c.1470-1511/1512)
Fors seulement
Johannes Prioris
Consommo la vita mia
Nicolas Gombert (c.1495-c.1560)
Tous les regretz
Jacobus Clemens non Papa (c.1510-1556)
Ego flos campi a 7