Saturday, 11 September 2010, 8pm
Xavier College Chapel, Barkers Road, Kew
Subscription Concert 4
The language of Palestrina so suited the ideals of the Counter- Reformation that his style became synonymous with Roman Catholic polyphony over the next four hundred years. ‘School of Palestrina’ could thus include composers writing in the ‘Roman’ or ‘Palestrina’ style over the succeeding centuries, but here we limit it to a few composers known to have been his students or at least working in close association with him. The principal work of the program is Soriano’s re-working of Palestrina’s great six-voice Missa Papae Marcelli for eight-voice double choir.
PROGRAM
Giovanni Maria Nanino Stabat Mater
Felice Anerio Lumen ad revelationem
Tomas Luis de Victoria Alma Redemptoris Mater
Tomas Luis de Victoria Ave Maria
Tomas Luis de Victoria Tu es Petrus
Francesco Soriano Missa de Papae Marcelli
Kyrie – Gloria – Credo – Sanctus – Agnus Dei
| SOPRANO | ALTO | TENOR | BASS |
| Deborah Summerbell | Belinda Wong | Peter Campbell | Samuel Allchurch |
| Katherine Norman | Jennifer Mathers | Tim Van Nooten | Kieran Rowe |
| Carol Veldhoven | Rebecca Woods | Vaughan McAlley | Alistair Clark |
| Kathryn Pisani | Niki Ebacioni | Stuart Tennant | Thomas Drent |
| Claerwen Jones | |||
| Maria Pisani |
REVIEW
Monday, 13 September 2010, The Age [Melbourne], page 16.
Old and new juxtaposed in fine ensemble show
Clive O’Connell
ON SATURDAY night, the Choir of Trinity College Cambridge repeated their touring program, notable for
juxtaposing old and new and highlighting director Stephen Layton’s passion for contemporary Baltic music.
Employing half the British body’s personnel, John O’Donnell’s Ensemble Gombert follows different paths,
concentrating on specific composers like Tomas Luis de Victoria, who provides all the content in the group’s
Christmas concert this year, or multi-polyphonic lines as in April’s offering event centred on Brumel’s
Earthquake Mass. Coinciding with the second Cambridge recital, the Gomberts sang music by writers taught
by Palestrina, influenced by him, or who rearranged the Renaissance master’s own work.
Palestrina’s Missa Papae Marcelli was held up to his contemporaries as the exemplar of all that could be
achieved in Counter-Reformation music: transparent and unembellished, on textual message throughout,
elevating in emotional content, suggestive of unshakeable strength of faith in its Creed’s later stages.
Rather than singing the original six-part Mass, the Gomberts worked through an arrangement by Palestrina’s
one-time pupil, Francesco Soriano, for eight lines or two choirs, which made lavish use of antiphonal effects,
realised to excellent effect by a cleverly arranged division of the Gombert voices, one group having a bright
timbral edge while the other enjoyed a firm, carrying tenor-and-bass partnership. Gifted with finely trained
participants, the ensemble transformed this curiosity into a richly thick tapestry, almost overwhelming in
pivotal sections where every line merges in sonorously stunning affirmations of belief.
As well as the mass, this night’s other contributions featured a short version of Giovanni Nanino’s
chorale-like Stabat mater, a variety-packed Lumen ad revelationem by Anerio, and a trio of Victoria motets
where the two-choir Alma Redemptoris mater and Ave Maria prepared for the night’s major work.
For this fine body’s admirers, the only disappointment was that the night passed all too rapidly.
Clive O’Connell/Courtesy of The Age