Tuesday 27 August 1996 at 8pm
Xavier College Chapel, Barkers Road, Kew
Subscription Concert 3
PROGRAM
Nicolas Gombert Regina caeli laetare a 12
Nicolas Gombert O beata Maria a 5
Nicolas Gombert Magnificat octavi toni a 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 & 8
Nicolas Gombert Credo a 8
Nicolas Gombert Mort et fortune a 4
Orlande de Lassus Magnificat tertii toni a 5 super Mort et fortune
Nicolas Gombert In illo tempore a 6
Claudio Monteverdi Missa da Capella a sei voci, fatta sopra il motetto In illo tempore del Gomberti
| SOPRANO | ALTO | TENOR | BASS |
| Deborah Summerbell | Katherine Wells | Philip Legge | Adrian Phillips |
| Carol Veldhoven | Margaret Arnold | Andrew Green | Andrew Williams |
| Lisette Wesseling | Jennifer Mathers | Matthew Flood | Andrew Fysh |
| Fiona Seers | Lynette Richardson | Timothy O’Connor | Jerzy Kozlowski |
REVIEWS
Thursday 29 August 1996, The Age [Melbourne], p.4
Ensemble a soaring success
Stephen Ingham
“MEDIA vita in morte sumus.” Thus begins an anonymous 11th century text: “in the midst of life we are in
death.” In an era of plagues, wars and famines, these words had a special resonance for composers and their
audiences. Tuesday’s concert in Xavier College by the Ensemble Gombert under the direction of John
O’Donnell brought together three contrasting settings of the Media vita, each one for six unaccompanied
choral parts, and all composed in the 16th century.
The plain white interior and spacious architecture of Xavier College’s Chapel proved an excellent venue, both
aesthetically and acoustically, for the 16 well-matched voices.
By paying careful attention to intonation (their aim is to preserve the purity of certain musical intervals, a
purity severely compromised by modern approaches to tuning) and developing a single, monolithic tone
quality with a uniform dynamic, the Gomberts have carved themselves a niche alongside Australia’s foremost
exponents of high-Renaissance vocal repertoire.
John Sheppard, an English composer of the Tudor period, is not generally well known but, judging by the
evidence of his Media vita setting, is unquestionably one of the finest of his day. Anyone wishing to be
initiated into the remote and exquisite world of Tudor church music need look no further than the Tallis
Scholars’ excellent recording of this astonishing piece.
O’Donnell’s singers coped well with the soaring upper parts and the grinding dissonances caused by clashing
major and minor modes, the so-called “false relations” that composers such as Purcell went on to exploit in
later years.
Nicholas Gombert’s setting was less spectacular, but equally plangent in its expressive handling of
dissonance, whereas Orlando Lassus’s treatment is much more consistently euphonious.
Another Gombert work, a five-part mass setting occupied the second half.
This is a longish work, demanding considerable stamina from the singers, who appeared to flag a little
towards the end.
The top end of the tenor range was also prone to come unstuck in intonation from time to time but, carping
aside, this was one of the better choral concerts I’ve attended in quite a while.
Stephen Ingham/Courtesy of The Age
Friday 30 August 1996, The Herald Sun [Melbourne], p.84
Choir earns fair hearing
Keith Field
AUSTRALIA’S foremost choir of unaccompanied singers, Ensemble Gombert, celebrated the waning solstice
with four masterpieces.
Appropriately, all of them were based on the wintry plainchant melody, Media Vita – “In the midst of life we
are in death “.
John O’Donnell drew gleeful attention to the “crunching dissonances” in Nicholas Gombert’s mass, Missa de
Media Vita.
He applied 16th-century chromatic practices to “bend” pitches, intensifying individual lines of melody and so
clashing voice against voice.
But the proof of O’Donnell’s daring speculations was in the hearing.
Ensemble Gombert achieved compelling unity of style, precluding vibrato, theatrical surges of
loud-and-soft and the vocal effects associated with later operatic mannerisms.
Supported by easy, natural and flexible pulsing, phrases overlapped in timeless, flowing motion to create a
mood of intensely felt spiritual introspection.
Gombert’s six-part motet, Media Vita, illustrated the composer’s consummate technical mastery as well as
emphasising his innovative spirit of discovery, continually re-arranging voices to evoke novel sonorities of
remarkable individuality.
The same text found sure response in the temperament of Roland de Lassus, whose tendency towards
melancholy and genius for strong personal expression was exemplified in a six-part motet, beautifully poised
over firm bass singing.
John Sheppard, a neglected composer of Tudor England, integrated verses of “In the midst of life . . .” with
the Nunc Dimittis – “now let thy servant depart in peace “, sung at every Anglican evensong.
Sheppard’s slender and euphonious textures, performed with confident precision, highlighted the informed
and innovative scholarship which establishes Australia’s Ensemble Gombert at high levels of excellence.