Concert 1: Saturday 22 February 2014 at 8 pm
Xavier College Chapel, Barkers Rd, Kew
Subscription Concert 1
When Anne of Brittany, uniquely the wife of two successive French kings, as well as Duchess of Brittany in her own right, died on 9 January 1514, her funeral lasted for forty days. Such an extended ceremony must have involved a lot of music, though only the three motets presented here can be identified with certainty. Nevertheless it is generally accepted that Prioris’s fine Requiem was also written for the occasion.
| Program | |
|---|---|
| Jean Mouton (c.1459-1522) |
Quis dabit oculis nostris |
| Pierre Moulu (1484?-c.1550) |
Fière Attropos |
| Costanzo Festa (c.1490-1543) |
Quis dabit oculis nostris |
| Josquin Desprez (c.1450-1521) |
De profundis |
| Johannes Prioris (c.1460-c.1514) |
Requiem
Introitus: Requiem aeternam |
SINGERS
| Soprano Carol Veldhoven Deborah Summerbell Maria Pisani Claerwen Jones Kathryn Pisani |
Alto Belinda Wong Yi Wen Chin Niki Ebacioni Miranda Gronow |
Tenor Peter Campbell Tim van Nooten Vaughan McAlley Stuart Tennant |
Bass Andrew Murray Thomas Bland Chris Potter Michael Strasser Jerzy Kozlowski |
REVIEW
Tuesday, 25 Febrary 2014, The Age [Melbourne], n.p.
Ensemble Gombert in fine renditions of funeral music for Anne of Brittany
Clive O’Connell
Commemorating Anne Of Brittany
Ensemble Gombert
Xavier College Chapel
February 22
When she died in 1514 aged 31, Duchess Anne of Brittany had been married to a German emperor and two French kings and had had 14 pregnancies. The last independent ruler of her state, she was a notable arts patron and her funeral rites lasted for 40 days, involving a good deal of music, although very few original compositions for these ceremonies have been documented.
For Saturday’s opening Ensemble Gombert series recital, artistic director John O’Donnell put together a program of works, both definites and maybes, connected with this remarkable woman’s extended obsequies, the most significant a Requiem by Johannes Prioris. This mass reveals an honest individuality and the choir gave it a finely-shaped performance with a satisfying balance between soprano and bass lines, notably in the rich Kyrie and a calmly celebratory Agnus Dei, although the well-worn plainchant Dies irae sequence seemed an odd if suitably sombre interpolation.
Two settings of the text Quis dabit oculis nostris, by Jean Mouton and Costanzo Festa, showed once again the Gomberts’ hallmarks of linear balance and controlled power. This was further substantiated by a glowing reading of Josquin’s late five-part De profundis with an interpretative depth that distinguishes this ensemble’s work at its best.
Clive O’Connell/Courtesy of The Age