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PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Fair Is The Rose
A recording by Chelys and The Gesualdo Six celebrating the life and legacy of Orlando Gibbons
Chelys and G6 collaborated for a concert at the Cheltenham Festival and it was really exciting how well the two ensembles knitted together, bringing an extraordinary energy to pieces that have received many performances this year in a variety of combinations and contexts. It made us realise there is space for a new recording, both because the repertoire is outstanding, and because of the audience reaction to our collaborative sound and dynamic. In addition to the pieces by Gibbons, G6 commissioned a new work from Áine Mallon as a response to the Gibbons madrigal Fair Is the Rose. She chose a lovely poem Nothing Gold Can Stay on the same theme of transient/fading youth, and wrote beautifully for the combined forces. We also included a piece by G6 director Owain Park called The Testimony of St John, which is written in response to the verse anthem This Is The Record of John. For the recording we plan to branch out and include music by some of Gibbons’ contemporaries, those who taught him and those who were taught by him. It’s wonderful to be able to consider this music both in the context of its own age and in terms of what it says to us and what responses we make to it today. There will be several previously unrecorded pieces on this disc, the two modern pieces from the concert programme plus another by Anna Semple called A Hymn, setting a text by Gibbons’ contemporary John Donne, and we are also exploring two verse anthems by Orlando’s brother Edward which don’t seem to have been recorded yet.
We are holding dates in May pending funding results, and will be under the expert production of Adrain Peacock and sound engineer David Hinitt. G6 record for Hyperion so we plan to release on this label because they will cover the recording costs (engineer, producer, venue). It means we just have to find the artists’ fees, but with a group of 11 musicians that is still a significant task! Both ensembles have been supported by Angel Early Music before, so we are confident of the success of that application, and Chelys have also had previous success with the Marchus Trust whose next deadline is October 1st, so a Continuo grant would mean we were able to bring this very exciting project together.