Saturday, 14 December 2002, 8pm
Sunday, 15 December 2002, 2.30pm
Xavier College Chapel, Barkers Road, Kew
Subscription Concert 5
Our annual carol-free Christmas concert is this year devoted to Lassus, recognized as the greatest master of the Late Renaissance both in his time and ours.
PROGRAM
Orlande de Lassus Resonet in laudibus
Orlande de Lassus Quem vidistis pastores
Orlande de LassusVerbum caro factum est
Orlande de Lassus In principio erat verbum
Orlande de Lassus Mirabile mysterium
Orlande de Lassus Omnes de Saba venient
Orlande de LassusVidentes stellam
Orlande de Lassus Adorna thalamum
Orlande de Lassus Nunc dimittis primi toni Il magnanimo Pietro
Orlande de Lassus Magnificat super Praeter rerum seriem
Orlande de Lassus Missa In principio
| SOPRANO | ALTO | TENOR | BASS |
| Deborah Summerbell | Jenny George | Peter Campbell | Jonathan Wallis |
| Carol Veldhoven | Niki Ebacioni | Tim Van Nooten | Sam Furphy |
| Margaret Pearce | Margaret Arnold | Vaughan McAlley | Darren Parer |
| Claerwen Jones | Susie Furphy | Stuart Tennant | Andrew Fysh |
| Maria Pisani | |||
| Fiona Seers |
–
REVIEW
Tuesday, 17 December 2002, The Age [Melbourne], page 4, The Culture.
Handel’s pacy, pared-down Christmas favourite
Clive O’Connell
FOR its final Christmas to Candlemas recital, the Ensemble Gombert sang music by Orlando de Lassus: four
Christmas Day motets, one for the Feast of the Circumcision, two for Epiphany and another two relevant to
the Feast of the Purification. Rather than take an interval, John O’Donnell kept his forces singing for the final
Magnificat and the Mass In Principio.
The prolific Renaissance composer’s timbre or sound quality is not as consonant or smooth in its harmonic
fluidity as Palestrina’s sacred music, nor as sparely striving as that of Victoria.
In fact, the main impression from this evening’s work proved to be Lassus’ unexpectedly high
experimentation level; whether it was in sudden harmonic swerves, or the removal of basses from the fabric,
or a whole passage devoted to exploiting low choral voices, there was usually something to rouse the
listener’s interest.
Of course, this music is a specialised choral genre, far removed from what most of us will hear in churches
over the coming week.
Yet, for all the felicity of the composer’s writing in which dramatic effect and form make equable partners,
these works present even superior bodies like the Gomberts with tests – on this night, chiefly of balance in the
weight given to each voice and its subdivisions.
For every section of this 14-part program, the group maintained their impressive articulation, faltering on
very few occasions.
We have heard scraps of this music before, but O’Donnell and his singers are always exploring new
expansions of their repertoire.
On this night, the Mass took the honours by producing an affecting, searchlight-clear extended sequence in
this worthwhile and cleverly cast Lassus retrospective.
Clive O’Connell/Courtesy of The Age