Arvo Pärt and Calvin Bowman (2015)

Saturday, 9 May 2015, 5.30pm
Xavier College Chapel, Barkers Road, Kew
Subscription Concert 2

Please note the earlier start time during the colder months

One of the highlights of Ensemble Gombert’s performance history was the first Australian performance of Arvo Pärt’s Kanon pokajanen in 2005. Here we re-visit sections of the work, flanked by earlier and later pieces of Pärt. Another highlight was the 2008 program including the world première performances of Calvin Bowman’s Holy Sonnets of John Donne which was composed for us. The sonnet cycle was subsequently renamed Death, be not proud, being the last of the four selected sonnets. We also acknowledge the significant anniversary of World War I with the performance of Beach Burial, set to text by Australian poet Kenneth Slessor. In this program these works are separated by the beautiful settings of Herrick that first endeared us to Bowman’s choral writing.

Program
Arvo Pärt Nunc Dimittis
Sieben Magnificat-Antiphonenen
Kanon pokajanen (
excerpts)
Calvin Bowman Beach Burial
To Daffadils
Death, be not proud

SINGERS

Soprano
Deborah Summerbell
Carol Veldhoven
Katharina Hochheiser
Victoria Brown
Claerwen Jones
Kathryn Pisani
Sarah Harris
Alto
Belinda Wong
Juliana Kay
Yi Wen Chin
Niki Ebacioni
Rebecca Collins
Tenor
Peter Campbell
Tim Van Nooten
Vaughan McAlley
Stuart Tennant
Michael Stephens
Bass
Andrew Murray
Nicholas Tolhurst
Michael Strasser
Mike Ormerod
Andrew Fysh