Saturday, 6 March 2004, 8pm, Loreto Chapel, Ballarat
Saturday 13 March 2004, 8 pm, Xavier College Chapel, Kew
Subscription Concert 1
Our first concert focusses on the Franco-Flemish repertoire of the generation of Josquin Desprez. It includes several works that are receiving their first performances in nearly five hundred years, in addition to a few pieces that enjoy an established place in our repertoire.
PROGRAM
Josquin Desprez Salve regina (à 4)
Johannes Ghiselin Regina caeli
Andreas de Silva Puer natus est nobis
Andreas de Silva Omnis pulchritudo Domini
Andreas de Silva In te, Domine, speravi
Gaspar van Weerbecke Stabat mater
Jacquet of Berchem O lux et decus Hispaniae
Jacquet of Berchem Ave virgo gloriosa
Nicolas Payen Resurrectio Christi
Josquin Desprez Illibata Dei virgo nutrix
Note: Gombert ‘Regina caeli’ advertised in subscription brochure but replaced by Josquin ‘Illibata Dei’.
In recognition of the terrorist attack in Madrid on 11 March, the program was preceded with the opening movement of Victoria’s Officium defunctorum, the introit ‘Requiem aeternam’.
Isaac’s ‘Virgo prudentissima’ was sung as an encore.
| SOPRANO | ALTO | TENOR | BASS |
| Deborah Summerbell | Jenny George | Peter Campbell | Jonathan Wallis |
| Carol Veldhoven | Jennifer Mathers | Tim Van Nooten | Thomas Drent |
| Margaret Pearce | Niki Ebacioni | Vaughan McAlley | Tom Reid |
| Claerwen Jones | Susie Furphy | Stuart Tennant | Andrew Fysh |
| Maria Pisani | |||
| Fiona Seers |
–
REVIEWS
Wednesday, 17 March 2004, The Age [Melbourne], page 9, A3.
Chamber choirs excel the hard way
Clive O’Connell
[…] JOHN O’DONNELL and the Ensemble Gombert sang an almost-90 minute marathon, which also featured
unfamiliar music. The night began with an unscheduled piece, a dark prelude in the form of the opening part
to Victoria’s Requiem: a moving memorial for the recent disaster in Spain, in music by one of that country’s
greatest composers.
Then followed motets by Desprez, Ghiselin, de Silva, de Berchem and Payen, the night’s centrepiece a
five-part Stabat mater by Gaspar van Weerbeke. This all comprised an exhibition of the group’s ability to
weave seamless fabrics of sound, the security of each line an unquestionable given no matter how rigorous
the counterpoint.
As an encore, Isaac’s motet Virgo prudentissima proved an unusual choice because of its length and
complexity so that, right to the end of this night, we were treated to polyphonic craftsmanship, rather than being diverted from gravity by bagatelles.