Homage to Gombert
Saturday, 22 September 2018, 8:00pm
Our Lady of Victories Basilica
Burke Road, Camberwell
Subscription Concert 2
This program is a celebration of two High Renaissance composers, Pierre de la Rue and Loyset Compère, both of whom died half a millennium ago, in 1518. The popular motet Absalon fili mi, generally attributed to Josquin, has been claimed by some as the work of La Rue, and the six-voice motet Pater de caelis Deus is a powerful demonstration of La Rue’s canonic technique. But La Rue is renowned above all as a composer of Masses, of which his six-voice Missa Ave sanctissima Maria, based on a motet by Verdelot, is a particularly fine example. Compère is represented by one of his so-called “substitution Masses”, a peculiarity of the Cathedral in Milan. The work is in fact a series of eight four-voice motets.
Josquin Desprez or Pierre de la Rue Absalon fili mi
Pierre de la Rue Pater de caelis Deus
Pierre de la Rue Ave sanctissima Maria
Pierre de la Rue Missa Ave sanctissima Maria
Loyset Compère Galeazescha
Soprano
Deborah Summerbell; Carol Veldhoven; Victoria Brown; Katharina Hochheiser;
Katherine Lieschke*; Claerwen Jones* (Alto 1 in Mass)
Alto
Belinda Wong; Helena Ekins-Daukes;
Niki Ebacioni; Peter Campbell
Tenor
Tim van Nooten; Michael Stephens;
Vaughan McAlley; Stuart Tennant
Bass
Andrew Murray; Adrian Phillips;
Mike Ormerod; Chris Potter
A HIGH RENAISSANCE CELEBRATION
Ensemble Gombert
Our Lady of Victories Basilica, Camberwell at 8 pm
Concert No.2 out of three being given this year at the imposing Catholic church in Camberwell, this endeavour by the Gomberts explores a rich mine of polyphony composed in the years before things got over-complicated. The four composers programmed are Josquin, Pierre de la Rue, Verdelot and Compere – all contemporaries, imposing presences in the French and Franco-Flemish compositional worlds. Josquin is represented by one work, the motet Absalon fili mi, which has been attributed to de la Rue – but never mind: it’s all in together for this night’s family. Verdelot also features with only one work: another six-voice motet, Ave sanctissima Maria which has also been attributed to that gadabout, de la Rue. The real de la Rue compositions are the six-voice Pater de caelis Deus and the canon-crazy Missa Ave sanctissima Maria. Compere’s Galeazescha, written for Duke Galeazzo Maria Sforza of Milan, is another form of mass, but one comprising Marian motets rather than following the usual Ordinary format. Here is the sort of music-making in which this exemplary ensemble shines: scholarly and transporting.
Clive O’Connell/O’Connell the Music