Sunday, 8 December 2002.
Hawthorn Town Hall, Hawthorn
The Mozart Collection
Presented by The Academy of Melbourne
PROGRAM
Jeremiah Clarke Prince of Denmark’s March
GF Handel Eternal Source of Light Divine
GF Handel Let the Bright Seraphim
CPE Bach Harpsichord Concerto in D minor, W. 23.
Antonio Vivaldi Magnificat
Antonio Vivaldi Gloria
Ensemble Gombert personnel unknown
The Academy of Melbourne
Angela Brewer – soprano
Tristram Williams – trumpet
Vicki Philipson – oboe
Margaret Pearce – soprano
Fiona Seers – soprano
Claerwen Jones – soprano
John O’Donnell – harpsichord
Brett Kelly – conductor
REVIEW
Tuesday, 10 December 2002, The Age [Melbourne], page 4, The Culture.
No baroque amplification necessary as arrangement strikes a chord
Clive O’Connell
[…]
Vivaldi’s Magnificat and Gloria involved the collaboration of the Ensemble Gombert at the Academy of
Melbourne’s last Mozart Collection concert on Sunday. Neither work stretches a choir, least of all one as
inured as the Gombert’s to improbably difficult and complex Renaissance works.Conductor Brett Kelly employed a small orchestra of 14 strings for the afternoon, backing Tristram Williams’
trumpet for the Prince of Denmark’s March, the combination of Williams and soprano Angela Brewer for
some Handel arias – Eternal Source of Light Divine and Let the Bright Seraphim – followed by John
O’Donnell’s account of C.P.E. Bach’s Harpsichord Concerto in D minor, W. 23.
Little of this raised the temperature to any notable degree. The March is lollipop-sized; Brewer had obvious
problems in finding breath to last through the extended scale passages of both arias. While there is an
occasionally intriguing element in the Bach concerto with some abrupt turns and sudden harmonic shifts, the
interest stays on a scholarly level, with several extended passages containing a determined working-out of
material but little else to engage attention.
For the two Vivaldi works, the Ensemble Gombert sang dutifully if not with that cloud-piercing finesse that it
shows in its subscription series.
The solo passages, taken by choir members, revealed occasional bursts of colour or individuality. Among
these, Margaret Pearce’s two solos in the Gloria showed a soprano voice of marked individuality, while the
duets of Claerwen Jones and Fiona Seers in both works were pleasurable because of the appealing
combination of two fresh and unspoiled high voices.
Yet the overall impression was of easy music-making, the academy strings playing with restrained power,
particularly notable for their truth of intonation in passages that required no vibrato.
Some instrumental spice was supplied by oboe Vicki Philipson and William’s trumpet, reduced to near-reed
status for the final work. Generally clean and precise, the Vivaldi double-bill made for pleasant listening but
brought the Mozart Collection series to an oddly low-key conclusion.
Clive O’Connell/Courtesy of The Age