Tuesday 15 December 1998 at 8pm
Wednesday 16 December at 8pm
Xavier College Chapel, Barkers Rd, Kew
Subscription Concert 5
PROGRAM
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
Dies sanctificatus a 4
Lapidabant Stephanum a 4
Hic est disciplinus ille a 5
Innocentes pro Christe a 4
O admirabile commercium a 5
Reges Tharsis a 5
Senex puerum portabat a 5
Nunc dimittus a 12
Hodie Christus natus est a 8
Missa Hodie Christus natus est a 8
SINGERS
| Soprano Deborah Summerbell Carol Veldhoven Claerwen Jones Maria Pisani Helen Gagliano |
Alto Bernadette Ballard Jennifer George Margaret Arnold Barbara Tattam |
Tenor Stuart Tennant Frank Prain Andrew Green Philip Legge |
Bass Julian Liberto Tom Henry Thomas Drent Andrew Fysh |
REVIEW
Monday 21 December, The Age [Melbourne], page 16.
The year of the Italians
Joel Crotty
Ensemble Gombert’s final offering for 1998 was an all-Palestrina affair, the last in a series of events that have
focussed on Italian Renaissance music.
We have investigated the political life of Florence and Venice through the music of Dufay and Giovanni
Gabrieli, respectively. Moreover, the experimentalism of Gesualdo and Josquin added a colorful dimension to
the season.
As we draw to the close of the 20th century, it is pleasing to know that in the West we have become a
population of musical detectives.
In previous centuries, many Renaissance composers, such as Gesualdo, were buried under the weight of
subsequent musical epochs. It seems almost unthinkable today that Josquin could have been dismissed by
generations of singers as an irrelevancy.
Conversely, Palestrina’s star has only slightly dimmed this century, due in part to musicologists recovering
the other master composers from his time. Nowadays Palestrina is competing for attention in the sprawl that
is music history.
How Palestrina remained such a dominant force in Western music for such a long time is certainly open to
debate. None the less, he was championed by the Catholic Church for centuries because of his conservative
compositional principles.
He wrote music that was restrained and emotionally balanced, and as a consequence, more than adequately
fulfilled the church’s requirements.
His music, however, did not stand the test of time just because he appeased the church hierarchy. Pedagogues
have used his brilliant, though ridged, contrapuntal structures as examples of excellence.
As with all Gombert concerts, John O’Donnell, the choir’s artistic director, programmed the Palestrina event
to explore a range of the composer’s output.
O’Donnell divided the concert into two halves. The first section was concerned with music associated with
some of the festivals within the Christmas to Candlemas period, roughly December to February. In the notes,
he guided us through the archaic rituals with the music as signposts.
This half was almost uniformly good, with only a few wayward spots of minor concern in Innocentes pro
Christe and Reges Tharsis. However, it was the 12-part complexity of Nunc dimittis that was the highlight of the night. And it was the work they also encored.
O’Donnell rearranged the voices on the stage to create a fresh blend and successfully enlivened the
soundscape. Moreover, this revised acoustic base revealed a solid accuracy in the delivery of the musical
lines. It was an example of the glorious purity that Gombert’s 17 voices were capable of obtaining on the
night.
However, the tight ensemble bond seemed to periodically desert them during Missa Hodie Christus natus est.
This difficult finale to the concert realised a few pitching problems and tentative attacks. The Credo, in
particular, seemed to test them in the maintenance of a unified front.
Ensemble Gombert’s 1999 season will be held once again in the Xavier College Chapel. In that space we will
encounter music from English and Franco-Flemish composers such as Byrd and Lassus. After a year with the
Italians, the next series will be positively multicultural.
Joel Crotty/Courtesy of The Age
Friday 18 December 1998, The Age [Melbourne], page 81.
Choral singing’s Renaissance
Johanna Selleck
MELBOURNE has had a “golden age” for unaccompanied choral singing since
Ensemble Gombert began their subscription series four years ago.
The group specialises in Franco-Flemish music of the High Renaissance, but their 1998 season has taken
followers through the rich, colorful Italian Renaissance.
Their final concert for the year was devoted to Palestrina and the sacred works he composed for major feast
days between Christmas and Candlemas (February 2).
Like manna from heaven, Palestrina’s music provided the Catholic church with the perfect antidote to the
“lascivious” music of the time. To inspire the congregation to serious spiritual contemplation, they sought to
purge it from unnecessary complexity and display.
As Ensemble Gombert demonstrated in motets such as O Admirabile Commercium, Palestrina’s music fitted
the bill perfectly.
The clarity and purity of style were tastefully exposed, with a balance between mystical elements and a sense
of grandeur.
A rare moment of insecurity occurred briefly in the upper parts of the motet Innocentes pro Christe.
Otherwise the delivery was confident and precise.
In the Missa Hodie Christus natus est, one of Palestrina’s four parody masses for double choir, the ensemble
traced the wonderfully proportioned contours while maintaining the plasticity of line. The full gamut of
emotions from joy to peaceful meditation was revealed.
Highlight of the first half was undoubtedly the splendid 12-part Nunc Dimittis. Gombert maintained a lucid
transparency of texture, despite the complexity of parts.
The final Amen echoed resplendently in every alcove of the Xavier College Chapel, making it the ideal
choice for final encore.
The group’s ability to achieve such full-bodied sonorities is one of the most enjoyable aspects of their
performances.