Tuesday, 19 December 1995 at 8pm
Xavier College Chapel, Kew
Subscription Concert
PROGRAM
Josquin Desprez Praeter rerum seriem
William Byrd Pro Adventu
–Rorate caeli desuper
–Atollite portas
–Ave Maria, gratia plena
–Ecce concipiet
Clemens non Papa Pastores quidnam vidistis
John Sheppard Reges Tharis et insulae
Nicolas Gombert Hodie beata virgo
Thomas Tallis Videte miraculum
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina O magnum mysterium
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina Missa O magnum mysterium
| SOPRANO | ALTO | TENOR | BASS |
| Deborah Summerbell | Margaret Arnold | Timothy O’Connor | Adrian Phillips |
| Carol Veldhoven | Jennifer Mathers | Nicholas Tolhurst | Grantley McDonald |
| Lisette Wesseling | Lynette Richardson | Peter Neustupny | Jerzy Kozlowski |
| Fiona Seers | Helena Simpson | Andrew Green | Andrew Fysh |
REVIEW
Thursday 21 December 1995, The Age [Melbourne], page 13.
Energetic end to the year
Clive O’Connell
[…] ALSO ending their performing year, John O’Donnell’s Ensemble Gombert gave another demonstration of
their scholarship and conviction in a lengthy (for this group) night’s singing, beginning with a group of nine
substantial motets for the current ecclesiastical season by Desprez, Byrd, Sheppard, Gombert, Tallis and
Clemens non Papa.
After interval, we moved into the less musically striking but more emotionally comfortable world of
Palestrina through the motet and mass O magnum mysterium.
The group’s singing, as far as I can tell, is the purest and finest achieved in musical terms on offer in
Melbourne.
In this context, even a fractional hesitation or questionable intonation at a passage’s start is apparent;
fortunately, such moments are rare in the Gomberts’ work. From the rolling warmth of the bass line, through
the attractively warm timbre of the altos, to the sopranos’ pinpoint accuracy and stellar purity, this group
gives its ever-increasing audiences considerable value for their time and money.
The Gomberts’ musical choices might not make for “easy” listening; indeed, some of this night’s works were
rigorous in their language, formally complex if harmonically bracing, like Josquin’s Praeter rerum seriem and
Gombert’s Hodie beata virgo. Even when a mellifluous composer like Palestrina appears, the chosen mass is
not an instantly attractive or popular one; rather, it requires a group of the Ensemble Gombert’s type: one of
irreproachable dependability and assurance in performance.
Clive O’Connell/Courtesy of The Age