Tuesday, 31 March 1998
Xavier College Chapel, Barkers Rd, Kew
Subscription Concert 1
PROGRAM
Carlo Gesualdo, Principe di Venosa Responsoria (1611)
Feria Quinta: 9 Responsoria
Interval (10 minutes)
Feria Sexta: 9 Responsoria
Interval ( 10 minutes)
Sabbato Sancto: 9 Responsoria
SINGERS
| Soprano Deborah Summerbell Carol Veldhoven Nina Pereira Claerwen Jones Maria Pisani Helen Gagliano
|
Alto Helena Simpson Jennifer Mathers Bernadette Ballard |
Tenor Frank Prain Peter Neustupny Andrew Green Stuart Tennant Philip Legge |
Bass Tom Henry Thomas Drent Andrew Fysh |
REVIEWS
Monday 6 April 1998 The Age [Melbourne], page 17.
Musical stamina put to the test
Joel Crotty
Ensemble Gombert’s 1998 season will be an all-Italian affair, in one way or another. In keeping with the
interesting programming of previous years, conductor John O’Donnell has come up with a series focusing on
the musical activities of a court, a town and a composer.
The Xavier College Chapel was filled for Gesualdo’s Responsaria et alia ad Officium Hebdomadae Sanctae
spectantia, of 1611, which was the choir’s first concert of the series.
The music is not only long in title but also in duration. It is a mammoth undertaking for both the choristers to
perform and for an audience to absorb. The complete Responsoria follows the lessons for Maundy Thursday,
Good Friday and Holy Saturday – a total of nine segments a day.
These 36 lessons do not collectively constitute a dramatic Easter storyline, but rather they are meditative;
hence, there is little potential for musical development. Therefore, the music is about momentary nuance
rather than broad splashes of color.
Some members of the audience found the required level of concentration too much by the end of the Good
Friday cycle and left. But it is the madrigalian way Gesualdo sets individual words and phrases that
highlights his gift for musical imagery. Coupled with these fleeting word-paintings is the composer’s chaotic
chromaticism, his sudden shifts in density and rhythm, and the awkward melodic lines, all of which makes
the Responsoria one of the composer’s most expressive scores.
Ensemble Gombert projected the music’s expressivity in a refined manner. The darkly hued sounds were
never lightened but rather shades of black became the fundamental perspective. Furthermore, clean lines were
evident – even in the wide-ranging melismas – and the phrasing was concisely controlled.
The constant need to re-blend and re-balance was, for the most part, seamlessly carried out, together with
tempi that never seemed out-of-place. It was only near the end of this epic journey that the singers became a
little tired.
The superbly resonant qualities of the basses – Tom Henry, Thomas Drent and Andrew Fysh – proved highly
effective in supporting roles and when called upon to be at the forefront of exposing the composer’s vivid
imagination. Only the altos, squeezed as they were between the larger soprano and tenor forces, seemed
unable to reveal a personality.
But this was a minor concern compared with the frustrating lack of program notes. The Gombert concerts are
thoughtfully constructed, almost with an eye on being didactic. However, on this occasion, John O’Donnell
chose to deliver a few words on the structure of the Responsoria in lieu of printed notes. It was a missed opportunity to impart knowledge and, therefore, better place the performance in its historical perspective.
Joel Crotty/Courtesy of The Age
Friday 3 April 1998 The Herald Sun [Melbourne], page 93.
Musical stamina put to the test
Johanna Selleck
CARLO Gesualdo, Prince of Venosa, was a man capable of the cruellest act of savagery, and also of the
loftiest expression of religious sentiment.
It is difficult to reconcile the cold-blooded murderer who stabbed his wife and her lover to death with the
composer of such inspired sacred music.
The way in which his music juxtaposes elements of the terrifying with the sublime is an accurate reflection of
the tortured soul of this complex individual.
Ensemble Gombert delivered the kind of scholarly, focused reading of the Responsoria that has become one
of the hallmarks of this exceptional choir.
Given that Gesualdo’s Responsoria is the product of the spirit of the Counter-Reformation, textual lucidity is
paramount.
Gombert’s clarity of diction and attack ensured that this was rarely compromised, despite the mammoth task
of presenting all of the 27 Responsoria in one sitting.
Divided into three groups of nine Responsoria, the story of the Passion is recounted, as told in the Lessons for
the hour of Matins on Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday.
Gesualdo’s genius was such that he was not hindered by the rigid schematic layout of Response and Versus,
but was able to create a work of poignant beauty via daring harmonies, variations in textural density and
imaginative rhythmic contrasts.
The dramatic potential of the work was convincingly realised in the choir’s performance.
For example, Gesualdo’s clever fugue on the words vos fugam capietis was thrown into sharp relief by the
powerful delivery.
Where the composer paints the text in musical gestures the choir enhanced them with subtle timbral and
dynamic adjustments, as on the words Darkness covered the Earth.
Here the vocal sonorities – the basses in particular – transformed magically into dark, sombre, earthy colors,
making a stunning contrast to the ethereal quality attained on the ensuing words, He gave up the ghost.
Gombert’s ability to achieve such complex variety while maintaining a richly homogenous foundation of
sound is one of the most impressive and enjoyable aspects of their performances.