Friday 7 November, 8 pm, St Ambrose Church, Woodend
Saturday 8 November, 8 pm, Xavier College Chapel, Kew
Subscription Concert 4
In our fourth concert you can hear all Brahms’ motets as well as two Bach favourites—Komm, Jesu, komm and Jesu, meine Freude.
PROGRAM
Johann Sebastian Bach Komm, Jesu, komm
Johann Sebastian Bach Jesu, meine Freude
Johannes Brahms Zwei Motetten, opus 29
1. ‘Es ist das Heil uns kommen her’
2. ‘Aus dem 51. Psalm’
Johannes Brahms Zwei Motetten, opus 74
1. ‘Warum ist das Licht gegeben’
2. ‘O Heiland, reiß die Himmel auf’
Johannes Brahms Fest- und Gedenksprüche, opus 109
1. ‘Unsere Väter hofften auf dich’
2. ‘Wenn ein starker Gewappneter’
3. ‘Wo ist ein so herrlich Volk’
Johannes Brahms Drei Motetten, opus 110
1. ‘Ich aber bin elend’
2. ‘Ach, arme Welt’
3. ‘Wenn wir in höchsten Nöten sein’
| 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 | Stuart Tennant | Andrew Fysh |
| Kate McBride | Susie Furphy | Vaughan McAlley | Tom Reid |
| Kathryn Pisani | |||
| Claerwen Jones | |||
| Maria Pisani | |||
| Helen Gagliano |
–
REVIEW
Tuesday, 11 November 2003,The Age [Melbourne], page 7, A3.
An ensemble on song even in new fields
Clive O’Connell
Moving some way out of their comfort zone, John O’Donnell and the Ensemble Gombert sang Brahms on
Saturday evening. The singers stayed clear of the folk-song choruses and romantic poetry settings in the
composer’s list of works, focusing on the sets of motets that stretch across Brahms’s creative life.
These four groups of works range from simple harmonisations to complex variations on a specific chorale to
original compositions with extraordinarily complex inner workings that would do credit to a master such as
Isaac, but which avoid sounding crabbed and academic, thanks to their in-built power and contrapuntal
terseness.
Brahms’s motets show the necessity for a kinder, more balanced assessment as the frequent fugues and
canons become justifiable means to an emotionally rich end: not arid exercises for their own sake but
dynamic passages woven into the religious text settings, some of them dramatic and large-scale such as
Warum ist das Licht gegeben, others such as Es ist das Heil and the moving Ach, arme Welt harnessing
superb craftsmanship to an impressive and vital statement with considerable breadth of humanity.
In the pursuit of dynamic balance, O’Donnell slightly expanded his soprano forces to eight singers, using four
only for the other three voice-types. Despite this minor adjustment of personnel, once again the Gomberts
demonstrated a near-ideal balance of lines, each part audible and distinguishable, even in massive sound
blocks such as powered out from the ensemble during the noble Fest-und Gedenkspruche Op. 109 that I was
hearing live for the first time.
The first half of the night was given over to two Bach motets: the insistent Komm, Jesu, komm and the
large-scale 11 movements that comprise Jesu, meine Freude. Parallels between the two German masters were
there to be drawn in the varied compositional devices employed, the juxtapositions and internal alterations of
texture, the application and resolution of fugue and canon, the creativity in the myriad changes that can be
rung on very simple elements.
The singers maintained their energy throughout the night, at the same time serving notice to Gombert
Ensemble admirers that their normal association with Renaissance choral music is not the whole story: their
talents are just as impressive when exercised on music that comes from several centuries outside their usual
repertoire.
Clive O’Connell/Courtesy of The Age