Saturday, 12 December 2009, 8 pm
Xavier College Chapel, Barkers Road, Kew
Subscription Concert 5
After two Venetian Christmas celebrations we return to our High Renaissance fare. Three years ago we performed Mouton’s Christmas motet Quaeramus cum pastoribus along with Morales’ Mass based upon it. This time we are singing another Mass based on the same motet, that by Mouton’s star pupil Adrian Willaert. The program is completed by a selection of motets by one of Gombert’s greatest contemporaries, the prolific but mysteriously named Clemens non Papa.
PROGRAM
Jean Mouton Nesciens mater
Jean Mouton Noe, noe, noe, psallite
Jean Mouton Illuminare, illuminare Jesusalem
Clemens non Papa O magnum mysterium
Clemens non Papa Pastores quidnam vidistis
Clemens non Papa Vox in Rama
Clemens non Papa Ab oriente venerunt magi
Clemens non Papa Videte miraculum
Jean Mouton Quaeramus cum pastoribus
Adrian Willaert Missa Quaeramus cum pastoribus
| SOPRANO | ALTO | TENOR | BASS |
| Deborah Summerbell | Belinda Wong | Peter Campbell | Julien Robinson |
| Carol Veldhoven | Jennifer Mathers | Tim van Nooten | Chris Potter |
| Maria Pisani | Rebecca Woods | Vaughan McAlley | Tom Henry |
| Claerwen Jones | Niki Ebacioni | Stuart Tennant | |
| Kathryn Pisani | |||
REVIEW
Monday, 14 December 2009, The Age [Melbourne], page 14
Polyphonic Christmas splendour
Clive O’Connell
Melbournes finest choir took little time to weave an impressive fabric of a cappella polyphonic
splendour on Saturday evening. In a program that confined itself to Renaissance music written for Christmas
Day, the Feast of the Holy Innocents and the Epiphany, John O’Donnell’s 16 singers began with a work of
sumptuous amplitude, Jean Mouton’s 8-part Nesciens mater, in which they established a rolling richness of
deep colour that illustrated the paradox of the Nativity’s domestic simplicity expressed in music of
extraordinary complexity and eloquence.
Keeping to a simple format, the Gomberts followed three Mouton motets with four works in the same form
by Clemens non Papa.
Here also, the set’s opening established a radiant placidity as the familiar text of O magnum mysterium was
amplified to include acclamations of Christ’s birth scene, each half of the motet concluding with a powerfully
moving Nowell: moments when the composer’s expressive assurance found splendid realisation, thanks to
these gifted interpreters.
In the night’s second part, O’Donnell revisited Mouton with the still harmonically surprising Quaeramus cum
pastoribus, followed by Willaert’s Mass based on his teacher’s motet.
The Flemish composer’s lucid textures came in for dramatic treatment, O’Donnell and his choir bringing an
urgency of pulse to this work’s various parts with an occasional reduction to limpid two- and three-line
textures before the burnished glory of the final Agnus Dei gave a muted reflection of the program’s opening.
Once again, this group of well-matched voices enriched the festive season with musical performances of high
quality.
Clive O’Connell/Courtesy of The Age