Saturday, 13 May 2000, 8 pm.
Xavier College Chapel, Kew
Subscription Series Concert 2
The challenge of writing many polyphonic lines without forbidden consecutive unisons, fifths or octaves was something that Renaissance composers relished. Most were contented to develop the technique to a maximum of six or eight voices, but there were those who set themselves higher goals, Striggio and Tallis scoring the highest honours with forty voices. For this program Ensemble Gombert is augmented by many friends to present a selection of works spanning about a century from Ockeghem to Marenzio.
PROGRAM
Johannes Ockeghem Deo gratias (à 36)
Robert Wylkinson Credo in Deum/Jesus autem (à 13)
Josquin Desprez Qui habitat in adjutorio Altissimi (à 24)
Antoine Brumel Missa Et ecce terrae motus (à 12)
Robert Carver O bone Jesu (à 19)
Nicolas Gombert Regina caeli laetare (à 12)
Alessandra Sriggio Ecce beatam lucem (à 40)
Thomas Tallis Spem in alium (à 40)
| Soprano | Alto | Tenor | Bass |
| Deborah Summerbell | Jenny George | Vaughan McAlley | Andrew Fysh |
| Carol Veldhoven | Margaret Arnold | Peter Neustupny | Philip Nicholls |
| Margaret Pearce | Jennifer Mathers | Peter Campbell | Jonathan Wallis |
| Claerwen Jones | Barbara Tattam | Stuart Tennant | John Weretka |
| Maria Pisani | |||
| Helen Gagliano |
–
Extra singers
Soprano: Sophie Clapperton, Kathryn Pisani, Suzanne Shakespeare, Jane Phillips, Sophie Pinkham
Alto: Tim Bell, Martha Billington, Niki Ebacioni, Chriss Jonas
Tenor: Irving Dekterev, Stephen O’Leary, Ben Owen, Frank Prain
Baritone/Bass: Mel Waters, John Waugh, Alex Fleetwood, Stephen Grant, Stephen Clements, Richard Droege, Grantley McDonald, John Pisani, Tom Reid, Tom Stringer, Kevin Munro.
REVIEW
Tuesday, 16 May 2000, The Age [Melbourne], page 5.
Many voices make a rich recital
Clive O’Connell
IN A busy weekend, John O’Donnell and his Ensemble Gombert presented their latest subscription recital at
the Xavier Chapel, assisted by about 25 supernumeries for a program of large-scale choral works. Not that
the works were over-long, but several of them called for an exceptional number of participants.
Perhaps the best known sample of this type of music, the 40-part Spem in alium motet by Tallis, finished off
the evening, its thunder a little palliated by a preceding companion piece, Alessandro Striggio’s Ecce beatam
lucem – also for 40 individual singers and featuring passages of magnificently full-bodied choral sound.
The opening and less dense works were canonic in nature, sophisticated rounds for various combinations like
Ockeghem’s simple but effective Deo gratias for 36 voices and Josquin’s Qui habitat in adjutorio Altissimi for
24 lines. But the most dramatic and exciting work was Antoine Brumel’s Mass Et ecce terrae motus for 12
voices.
Perhaps it was the relative clarity of the piece or its accelerating contrasts of tempo and activity, but the Mass
made for very fine singing, energetic in accomplishment and a sterling sample of this group’s finely honed
musicality at its best.
The next day, the Gomberts were heard at closer quarters, singing the five double-choir Bach motets in one of
the larger rooms at the Gold Treasury Museum.
Where Saturday night had been sonorous and slow-moving, the second recital brought the listener to intimate
terms with some of the most polyphonically rich music ever written for voices. It was an enlightening
experience, as compelling as the finer moments in the polychoral recital but invested with the tension that
comes from hearing at close range works that demand extreme precision, the choir only a few metres from
everyone in the room.
The more energetic the music – like the openings and conclusions to Der Geist hilft and the infectious, jovial
Singet dem Herrn – the more one’s admiration for the Gomberts grew. There are few choirs that would have
coped as creditably with the performance conditions.
Clive O’Connell/Courtesy of The Age