Saturday, 17 July 2004, 8 pm
Xavier College Chapel, Barkers Road, Kew
Subscription Concert 3
Concert 3 is a repeat of our very first subscription program from March 1995, a smorgasbord of polyphony from the High Renaissance to the Late Baroque.
PROGRAMS
Josquin Desprez Ave Maria
Josquin Desprez Inviolata, integra, et casta es Maria
Josquin Desprez Benedicta es, caelorum Regina
Nicolas Gombert Regina caeli laetare
Philippe de Monte Super flumina Babylonis
William Byrd Quomodo cantabimus
Carlo Gesualdo Responsoria: Sabbato Sancto — In ij Noct.
1. ‘Recessit pastor noster’
2. ‘O vos omnes’
3. ‘Ecce quomodo moritur justus’
Johann Sebastian Bach Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied
| SOPRANO | ALTO | TENOR | BASS |
| Deborah Summerbell | Belinda Wong | Peter Campbell | Alexander Roose |
| Carol Veldhoven | Jennifer Mathers | Tim Van Nooten | Jonathan Wallis |
| Kathryn Pisani | Niki Ebacioni | Vaughan McAlley | Tom Reid |
| Claerwen Jones | Susie Furphy | Stuart Tennant | Andrew Fysh |
| Maria Pisani | |||
| Helen Gagliano |
–
REVIEWS
Tuesday, 20 July 2004, The Age [Melbourne], page 13, A3
Gomberts in excellent form; Crellin reliable
Clive O’Connell
On the verge of their first overseas tour, the Ensemble Gombert is in excellent form, showing its high
performance level plainly at Saturday’s Paragons of Polyphony recital. The program, offered as one long
stretch of sonorous fabric, began with three Marian motets by Josquin and ended with the exhausting Singet
dem Herrn by Bach for double choir.
But the central parts of the evening gave the most fruitful rewards. First, the group’s namesake constructed a
rich complex of 12 lines in his Regina caeli laetare, brought to a splendid realisation by these 18 singers
whose interpretation of the harmonic clashes of the motet’s second half generated the kind of assured
professionalism heard from no other Australian choir of this type.
Philippe de Monte’s Catholic lament Super flumina Babylonis and the more uncomfortably situated
Englishman Byrd’s response demonstrated the group’s talent at realising such emotionally sophisticated
music’s drama without resorting to over-hyped dynamics or adding cosmetic touches to the steady polyphonic
mesh.
Even in three of the Responsoria for Holy Saturday by the arch-mannerist Gesualdo, O’Donnell and the
Gomberts took a measured approach, leaving the composer’s surprising chromatic slips and slides to speak
for themselves as sincere illustrations of the noble texts. The Gomberts’ ability to handle this kind of intense,
demanding work should generate enthusiasm on their European circuit.
Clive O’Connell/Courtesy of The Age