The Annunciation • Music by Jonathan Harvey • Performed by The Gesualdo Six, directed by Owain Park • Filmed at St James Sussex Gardens, London



This track comes from our second album, ‘Christmas’, a programme that reaches across the ages inspired by the mystery and joy of the festive season.

CD available online: https://bit.ly/G6Christmas
Download on iTunes: https://apple.co/2JdKL3Z



About the music

‘The Annunciation’, a setting of words by the Orcadian poet Edwin Muir, was composed in 2011 for the Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge, by British composer Jonathan Harvey who believed this would be his final work. Harvey sought a form of spirituality with unity at its core, with particular emphasis on the interaction between energy and stillness, an approach that finds a parallel in the Advent season’s combination of expectation and reflection. The beginning of each stanza is marked by the introduction of a musical idea that subtly refers back to the opening statement. A moment of calm in the centre of the work—‘Feathered through time’—is later recaptured, as the ‘deepening trance’ of the final stanza is brought alive with a beautiful series of closing chords. This version has been arranged by Joseph Wicks. [Programme note: Owain Park © 2019]


The Gesualdo Six | Owain Park
www.thegesualdosix.co.uk