Saturday, 15 May 2004, 8pm
Xavier College Chapel, Barkers Road, Kew
Subscription Concert 2
Concert 2 is made up of double-choir works old and new. Following the success of our venture into Brahms in 2003 we are extending our German Romantic repertoire with Psalms of Mendelssohn; and Frank Martin’s celebrated double-choir Mass is one of our two twentieth century offerings for the year.
PROGRAM
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina Stabat mater
Michael Praetorius Christus, der uns selig macht
Michael Praetorius Gott der Vater wohn uns bei
Johann Sebastian Bach Der Geist hilft unser Schwachheit auf
Felix Mendelssohn Drei Psalmen, Opus 78
1. ‘Warum toben die Heiden’
2. ‘Richte mich, Gott’
3. ‘Mein Gott, warum’
Frank Martin Mass for Double Choir
| SOPRANO | ALTO | TENOR | BASS |
| Deborah Summerbell | Jennifer Mathers | Peter Campbell | Jonathan Wallis |
| Carol Veldhoven | Kathryn Pisani | Tim Van Nooten | Alexander Roose |
| Margaret Pearce | Niki Ebacioni | Vaughan McAlley | Tom Reid |
| Claerwen Jones | Susie Furphy | Stuart Tennant | Andrew Fysh |
| Maria Pisani | |||
| Fiona Seers |
–
REVIEW
Wednesday, 19 May 2004,The Age [Melbourne], page 8, A3.
Two artforms, two choirs, twice the work
Joel Crotty
[…]
ENSEMBLE Gombert have garnered a solid reputation for their performances of unaccompanied choral
music from the Renaissance and Baroque periods. This time around, the 18 voices, under the direction of
John O’Donnell (pictured), moved into the 19th and 20th centuries. Mendelssohn’s Drei Psalmen op. 78 and
Frank Martin’s Mass for Double Choir proved to be the stand-out works of the event.
The solos in the Mendelssohn were superbly handled, as was the vocal blend in the long stretches of
homophonic writing. Equally as impressive was the reading of Martin’s Mass, helped in no small way by the
sympathetic acoustics of the Xavier College Chapel.
Double choir works can be tricky affairs to get right. The lack of balance between the two sets of choristers
can often lead to muddy interpretations. This was the unfortunate outcome for Praetorius’s Christus, der uns
selig macht and Gott der Vater wohn’ uns bei, and Bach’s Der Geist hilft unser Schwachheit auf. Although the
struggle was there during those works, the choir was in top form throughout Palestrina’s Stabat mater.
Joel Crotty/Courtesy of The Age