Saturday, 4 March 2006, 8pm
Xavier College Chapel, Barkers Road, Kew
Subscription Concert 1
ABC Classic FM Direct Broadcast
In recent years Ensemble Gombert has presented several of the major a cappella works of the 20th century, notably the Australian première of Pärt’s Canon of Repentance in 2005. We open our 2006 season with an exploration of a cappella music from a variety of traditions. The program includes miniatures by Stravinsky, Holst, Duruflé and Messiaen as well as works of larger dimensions, including Rubbra’s double-choir Te Deum, of which we gave the first Australian performance in 1992. We believe that Distler’s Totentanz will be receiving its Australian première in this concert.
PROGRAM
Igor Stravinsky Pater noster
Olivier Messiaen O sacrum convivium
Francis Poulenc Messe en Sol Majeur
Maurice Duruflé Quatre motets sur des thèmes grégoriens
Hugo Distler Totentanz
Arvo Pärt Magnificat
Gustav Holst Nunc dimittis
Herbert Howells Take him, earth, for cherishing
Edmund Rubbra Te Deum
| SOPRANO | ALTO | TENOR | BASS |
| Deborah Summerbell | Jennifer Mathers | Peter Campbell | Alexander Roose |
| Carol Veldhoven | Belinda Wong | Tim Van Nooten | Philip Nicholls |
| Fiona Seers | Niki Ebacioni | Vaughan McAlley | Tom Reid |
| Kathryn Pisani | Rebecca Woods | Stuart Tennant | Tim Daly |
| Maria Pisani | |||
| Claerwen Jones |
For the Distler
Der Tod (Death): John O’Donnell
Der Kaiser (The Emperor): Alexander Roose
Der Bischof (The Bishop): Tim Daly
Der Edelmann (The Nobleman): Philip Nicholls
Der Arzt (The Physician): Jennifer Mathers
Der Kaufmann (The Merchant): Tim van Nooten
Der Landsknecht (The Mercenary): Niki Ebacioni
Der Schiffer (The Sailor): Belinda Wong
Der Klausner (The Hermit): Vaughan McAlley
Der Bauer (The Farmer): Tom Reid
Die Jungfrau (The Young Woman): Claerwen Jones
Der Greis (The Old Man): Stuart Tennant
Das Kind (The Child): Carol Veldhoven
REVIEWS
Tuesday, 7 March 2006, The Age [Melbourne], page 20.
Janson shows passion; Distler haunted by death
Clive O’Connell
[…]
CONFINING themselves to 20th-century music, the Ensemble Gombert put in a mighty effort on Saturday evening, beginning with the emotionally static Pater noster by Stravinsky and concluding two hours later by revisiting Rubbra’s stately Te Deum, which the group premiered here in 1992.
John O’Donnell took his singers through a Messiaen motet, an uneven reading of Poulenc’s Mass in G, then finished the night’s French section with the Four Motets on Gregorian Themes by Durufle, pages that speak
of a warm Christian devotion and contrasting neatly with Arvo Part’s frieze-panel setting of the Magnificat -one of the night’s simply expressed successes.
The program’s interest came in the Totentanz by Hugo Distler, a German composer who was unable to cope with the pressures of life in Berlin under the Nazi regime. This work alternates choral sections with spoken
dialogue in which Death commands various figures to enter into his dance.
While Distler’s music mines a number of veins, including medieval and Renaissance/Baroque techniques and passages of unexpected harmonic novelty, his language sings in a clear and not over-adventurous voice,
nearly all the sung aphorisms concluding in a rich, well-spaced common chord.
With the Gombert singers taking on the lines of the work’s characters and O’Donnell reading Death, alongside some persuasive and atmospheric singing we also heard some uneasy spoken German.
Still, the occasion gave a welcome Australian exposure to Distler’s masterwork – the moving relic of an honest artist living through an awful time.
Clive O’Connell/Courtesy of The Age
Friday, 10 March 2006, Herald-Sun [Melbourne], page 90.
ENSEMBLE GOMBERT
Xenia Hanusiak
MELBOURNE’S Ensemble Gombert is noted for its mastery of early music repertoire.
The choir has built its reputation on being able to conjugate the flowing nuances of plainsong on the one hand and the complexities of polyphonic music on the other.
No wonder that when it comes to 20th-century repertoire, they have a headstart.
Recent popular composers such as Part, Gorecki and other minimalists have taken up plainsong and in turn drawn attention.
Plainsong has a humble religious attachment to austerity, and the seemingly unending musical phrase arouses a feeling of timelessness — a simplicity attractive to the overloaded modern listener.
On the other side of the scale, Gombert’s polyphonic practice keeps the choir ready for the heady chromaticism of composers such as Messiaen.
So, with this armoury in position, Gombert traversed the stylistic gamut in their opening concert this year, Sacred Gems of the 20th Century.
The repertoire was not only diverse but also exhausting for the listener. Stravinsky, Messiaen, Poulenc, Duruflé, Distler, Part, Holst, Howells and Rubbra were a lot to take in on one sitting.
Of particular interest was a theatrical gem by little-known composer Hugo Distler, who took his own life at age 34. One of these is the Totentanz (Dance of Death). In this work, 14 musical sayings interpolate conversations with Death.
Death (recited by John O’Donnell) knocks at the door of an emperor, a bishop, a nobleman, a physician, a merchant, a farmer, a mercenary, a sailor, a virgin, an old man and a child (recited by Gombert members).
With exemplary German pronunciation, this beautifully executed work was a revelation.
Elsewhere, Gombert reached dynamic ecstasy in the climaxes of Part’s Magnificat and Rubbra’s Te Deum, created eerie, glassy textures in Messiaen’s O Sacrum convivium and removed austerity in Stravinsky’s Pater noster.
Though I was aurally overloaded, the concert created an interesting journey into this repertoire.