Tuesday, 27 May 1997 at 8pm
Xavier College Chapel, Barkers Road, Kew
Subscription Series Concert No 3
PROGRAM
Thomas Tallis Incipit lamentatio
Robert Parsons Ave Maria
William Byrd Quomodo cantabimus?
Thomas Morley De profundis
Thomas Weelkes Gloria in excelsis Deo
Orlando Gibbons O clap your hands
Thomas Tomkins O God, the proud are risen against me
Henry Purcell Thou knowest, Lord
Samuel Wesley In exitu Israel
Charles Villiers Stanford Magnificat for double Chorus
Ralph Vaughan Williams Three Shakespeare Songs
1. Full fathom five
2. The cloud-capped towers
3. Over hill, over dale
Benjamin Britten Hymn to Saint Cecilia
| SOPRANO | ALTO | TENOR | BASS |
| Deborah Summerbell | Helena Simpson | Peter Neustupny | Adrian Phillips |
| Carol Veldhoven | Jacqueline Howard | Michael Stevens | Andrew Williams |
| Maria Pisani | Margaret Arnold | Philip Legge | Jerzy Kozlowski |
| Fiona Seers | Andrew Green | ||
REVIEWS
Tuesday 3 June 1997, The Age [Melbourne], page 5.
Unsettling choral virtuosity
Clive O’Connell
NOT COMPLETELY deserting its usual Renaissance ground, the Ensemble Gombert’s recent concert
covered four centuries of English music, much of it for liturgical use. John O’Donnell’s group emphasised
Elizabethan and Jacobean works – Tallis, Parsons, Byrd, Morley, Weelkes, Gibbons, Tomkins, and Purcell
through the popular anthem Thou knowest, Lord.
These were sung with the Gombert’s habitual polish. Even when the parts thinned out because of composers’
demands for many lines, a slight spikiness informed the choral mix as individual voices took on more
prominence.
This exposure, nevertheless, served to demonstrate the group’s even balance. The productive gap between
Purcell and Wesley is about a century, but the level of inspiration is somewhat greater. While In exitu Israel
(without organ accompaniment) has a piquant heartiness, it is comparatively lightweight.
Stanford’s Magnificat for double chorus rang some warm post-Brahmsian changes, but the real ear-opener
was with Three Shakespeare Songs by Vaughan Williams, rarely sung small-scale works: Full Fathom Five,
The cloud-capp’d towers (a recycling of material from the 6th Symphony), and Over hill, over dale. All are
testing for a choir, sometimes just in simple pitching of notes, but their effects are magical.
Finally, O’Donnell took his forces through a direct, unsentimental, headlong version of Britten’s Hymn to St
Cecilia. This was a case of stripping away any gloss or fat, going for the emotional meat in Auden’s verses:
an extraordinary, somehow unsettling exhibition of choral virtuosity. […]
Clive O’Connell/Courtesy of The Age
Friday 30 June, The Herald Sun [Melbourne], page 72.
Gombert in classic voice
Johanna Selleck
ENSEMBLE Gombert’s concert covered four centuries of a cappella English music, resulting in some
fascinating stylistic comparisons. The diverse program provided glimpses into the music’s chronological
development from the Tudor period to contemporary times.
The first half focused on sacred music produced by a succession of composers, most of whom were famous
“gentleman of the Chapel Royal”. The concert began with the mournful Incipit Lamentatio by Thomas Tallis,
and works by Parsons, Byrd, Morley and Weelkes followed. All were performed with the poise and assurance
that we have come to expect from this ensemble.
These composers were expert at reconciling the demands of the text with those of the music, despite often
complex polyphony. This feature is highlighted by the ensemble’s ability to maintain such crystalline
sonorities.
Purcell’s Thou Knowest, Lord introduced a change of mood along with a more homophonic style, and, to
complete the first half, Samuel Wesley’s In Exitu Israel was positively rousing.
For music of the 16th century, Ensemble Gombert aims to draw upon performance practices of the time in
attempting to sound “like a properly built organ” with a fairly constant, homogenous tone.
The golden age of a cappella music requires exactly such a carefully cultivated sound, whereas the modern
works programmed after interval required a very different approach.
The Stanford’s Magnificat was full of drama and contrasts that would have been inappropriate earlier, as
would the timbral variations required in the final two works by Ralph Vaughan Williams and Benjamin
Britten.
Vaughan Williams’ Three Shakespeare Songs opens to the sound of bells tolling on the most piquant
harmonies, and the effect was captured beautifully.
Hymn to St Cecilia by Benjamin Britten has enormous scope for color and dynamic variation, from the soft
choral unisons and the light, almost flippant, reiterations in the scherzo to the quasi-instrumental vocal
cadenzas.
Most of these opportunities were explored imaginatively, though a more adventurous interpretation would
have enhanced the performance even further.