Sunday, 14 November 2004, 2.30pm
Hawthorn Town Hall, Burwood Road, Hawthorn
The Mozart Collection 2004
presented by The Academy of Melbourne
PROGRAM
Johannes Brahms Motets Op. 74, No.1 & Op. 109 [performed by Ensemble Gombert]
Ludwig van Beethoven Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125 [performed by The Melbourne Symphonic Chorus]
| SOPRANO | ALTO | TENOR | BASS |
| Deborah Summerbell | Jenny George | Peter Campbell | Alexander Roose |
| Carol Veldhoven | Belinda Wong | Tim Van Nooten | Thomas Drent |
| Kathryn Pisani | Niki Ebacioni | Vaughan McAlley | Tom Reid |
| Helen Gagliano | Barbara Tattam | Stuart Tennant | |
| Maria Pisani | |||
| Claerwen Jones |
–
Additional singers for Beethoven (to comprise the Melbourne Symphonic Chorus):
SOPRANO: Michèle de Courcy, Cecilia Harkin, Jacqueline James, Nina Pereira, Andrea Reichert, Sally Watt
ALTO: Barbara Beer, Sophie Chapman, Alice O’Kane, Leonie Tonkin
TENOR: Tim Bell, Joel Gladman, Robert Parbs, Frank Prain, Louise Tunbridge
BASS: Richard Bolitho, Nicholas Carter, Mark Dulfer, Ken Falconer, Geoff Millar, Peter Neustupny, Julien Robinson, Martin Strauss, Roderick Vance
The Academy of Melbourne
Brett Kelly – artistic director & conductor
Michael Kisin – leader
REVIEW
Tuesday, 16 November 2004, The Age [Melbourne], page 8, A3.
Kelly gang in raid on Beethoven
Clive O’Connell
BEETHOVEN’S Choral Symphony saw Academy of Melbourne artistic director Brett Kelly call on
members of Orchestra Victoria and well-known freelancers to assist his usual ensemble – itself made up of
many Melbourne Symphony Orchestra musicians.
For choral forces, we heard the excellent Ensemble Gombert and friends as the Melbourne Symphonic
Chorus – about 40 singers in all. And Kelly was well endowed with the four essential soloists: soprano
Merlyn Quaife, mezzo Lynlee Williams, tenor Adrian McEniery and bass Ian Cousins.
John O’Donnell conducted a brief first half, his Ensemble Gombert singing four choral works by Brahms,
beginning with the popular Warum ist das Licht gegeben, followed by the three Fest und Gedenkspruche –
works which the choir has sung recently in a program of Brahms’ a cappella religious music. The close
acoustics of this hall gave an insight into the group’s reliability and fearlessness, qualities that tend to be
forgotten in the flattering surrounds of its home base at Xavier Chapel.
Kelly took a bluff approach to the symphony’s first three movements, hammering out the first movement’s
craggy contours with little room for metaphysical musing. The following scherzo moved at startling speed,
timpani and strings hard pressed to get their notes out cleanly.
Opening the famous choral finale, Cousins made a wobbly start to the opening recitative, but soon recovered
for a firm outlining of the movement’s major theme. Kelly encouraged his orchestra during the opening
choral gambits, so the choristers’ impact was muted, not helped by the stage’s framing curtains. A better
balance came after the soloists entered in the second stanza and the often awkward Seid umschlungen
segment moved past less cumbersomely than in readings heard here during the past 15 years.
Next year, the Academy is taking a sabbatical, drawing breath to shore up their approach and support. Apart
from one major performance in November, the first we will hear from this estimable body comes after its
regrouping in a full 2006 season; a disappointment for Academy admirers but clearly a vital developmental
step.
Clive O’Connell/Courtesy of The Age