Christmas to Candlemas (2005)

Saturday, 10 December, 2005, 8pm
St Ambrose Church, Woodend
Saturday, 17 December 2005, 8 pm
Xavier College Chapel, Barkers Road, Kew

Subscription Concert 5

For over four centuries Palestrina’s music has been singled out by the Roman Catholic Church as the polyphonic ideal. Between works for Christmas and Candlemas are motets for the feasts of the three days following Christmas— St Stephen, St John and the Holy Innocents—as well as the Circumcision (1 January), Epiphany (6 January) and Conversion of St Paul (25 January). The major work is the joyful Missa Hodie Christus natus est for double choir.

PROGRAM

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina O magnum mysterium
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina Lapidabant Stephanum
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina Hic est discipulus ille
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina Laudate pueri
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina O admirabile commercium
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina Videntes stellam Magi
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina Magnus sanctus Paulus
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina Senex puerum portabat
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina Nunc dimittis
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina Hodie Christus natus est (à 8)
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina  Missa Hodie Christus natus est (à 8)

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REVIEWS

Wednesday, 21 December 2005, The Age [Melbourne], page 18
Gomberts balanced; RMP voices convincing
Clive O’Connell

ENDING the year with their usual Christmas to Candlemas recital, John O’Donnell and his Ensemble Gombert concentrated on one composer: the prolific Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. In a neatly devised sequence, the group sang music that the composer wrote for major feasts in the post-Christmas calendar, then performed Palestrina’s motet Hodie Christus natus est and the substantial mass in eight parts that he wrote using that specific piece as source material.
Not one to aim for startling harmonic slides or dramatic word-paintings, the composer’s works move with an inevitability and majesty that comes as close as church music can to expressing the impermeable monolithic nature of the Renaissance Catholic Church. As the Gomberts present motets like Laudate pueri, the glowing Videntes stellam for the Epiphany and Palestrina’s massive, grand Nunc dimittis, you get some inkling of the composer’s significance in the Counter-Reformation art world.
In line with the works themselves, O’Donnell and his singers pursued a carefully balanced mode of operations, the group’s individuals rarely heard except in the 12-part song of Simeon and the Mass, which reached some magnificent moments when small groups were set off against the rolling power of a larger body. Not exactly God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen as a quartet of young things in front of me obviously expected, but a splendid sonorous bath of rich and secure a cappella performances.
Clive O’Connell/Courtesy of The Age

Wednesday, 21 December 2005, Herald-Sun [Melbourne], page 56.
ENSEMBLE GOMBERT
Xenia Hanusiak

ENSEMBLE Gombert had its finest hour at its last offering of the year. Focusing on 16th-century Italian
composer Palestrina, this festive concert performed his religious music from Christmas to Candlemas via a
narration of the Christmas story.
The 18-member chamber choir began with a golden rendition of a six-part motet, O magnum mysterium, a
celebration of Christ’s birth.
Within a few bars director John O’Donnell set up the joyous occasion, skilfully guiding his choristers with
smoothly flowing counterpoint and harmonic buoyancy.
Cohesion and master control were the order of the day, with a consistently beautiful choral texture overriding
the considerable musical challenges.
By the final motet, Senex puerum portabat, the singers regrouped into 12 parts. The motet was secure and
robust. Each melodic line was clear in articulation. The basses were consistently strong, the sopranos rang
with their trademark clarity and the tenors and altos were a sympathetic consort.
This Gombert roll call has been together for some time and their attention to the Renaissance repertoire is
paying handsome dividends. Melbourne has a world-class ensemble.