Author: Niki

Tuesday, 19 September 1995 at 8pm
Xavier College Chapel, Kew

Subscription Concert
PROGRAM

Johannes Ockeghem  Kyrie & Gloria from Missa Caput
Josquin Desprez   Nymphes des bois
Josquin Desprez Planxit autem David
Josquin Desprez Benedicta es, caelorum regina
Clemens non Papa Pater peccavi
Fremuit spiritu Jesus
Nicolas Gombert Lugebat David Absalon
Orlande de Lassus  Magnificat octavi toni

REVIEW
Monday, 25 September 1995, The Age [Melbourne], page 13.
Local choir of exquisite quality
Clive O’Connell

There have been some changes in the personnel of the Gombert Ensemble. The number of tenors and
basses has been reduced by one in each section, and there are some new faces in the male line-up.
Not that it makes much difference to the lowest part: with Jerzy Kozlowski, Grantley McDonald and Adrian
Phillips in full voice, you could not ask for a more solid underpinning, even when the bass line is divided into
two parts.
The ensemble’s tenors – Timothy O’Connor, Nicholas Tolhurst and Peter Neustupny – produce less volume
and, at certain passages, the texture could have coped with more centre-thickening power from this rank.
Still, the ensemble is faring better in acquiring tenors than any other local choral group I’ve heard this year.
And it still has that ravishingly clear and musically polished double-quartet of sopranos and altos.
John O’Donnell and his 14 voices presented another deftly organised program: two parts of Ockeghem’s
Missa Caput, three choral works by Josquin including the mighty Planxit autem David, a brace of motets
from Clemens non Papa, the sine-qua- non Gombert piece – Lugebat David Absalon, and a Lassus Magnificat
setting.
Is it possible to over-praise? Possibly, but this standard of singing makes you impatient with most other
choral bodies because the Gomberts work so well together and have so much going for them. Even though
their chosen field of expertise is a specific one – there is no leaping across the centuries but a steady
exploration of the vein of Renaissance choral music, with the accent on the Northern schools – they sing with
a rock-hard infallibility that turns harmonic clashes into drama, not just a piquant spicing-up of the texture.
And for all its formal complexity, this music is deeply moving. Perhaps its effect comes down to the singers’
confidence and responsiveness, coupled with their director’s scholarship.
It might also be a case of the performances being given in a building made for a cappella singing; the Xavier
Chapel certainly adds lustre to any voice and is particularly kind to thorough musicians.
Whatever the cause, there have been few more absorbing samples of live choral work in my experience than
the Gomberts’ reading of Josquin’s Planxit. For sheer purity of intonation and fluidity of texture, this was a
memorable performance. When put alongside a composition of this inspired craft and expressive sincerity,
Allegri’s Miserere sounds trite and sentimental.
I’ve said it before but it is worth repeating: the Gombert Ensemble concerts are marvellous events that should
not be missed by anyone who is interested in hearing top-notch singing.
Even the most highly publicised visitors rarely produce music- making of this calibre.
Clive O’Connell/Courtesy of The Age

Tuesday 20 December 1994, 8pm
Xavier College, Barkers Road, Kew

PROGRAM
Program details taken from newspaper review (below)

Robert Fayrfax Magnificat
Walter Lambe Nesciens Mater
Jean Mouton Nesciens Mater
Andreas de Silva Puer natus est nobis
Nicolas Gombert O magnum mysterium
William Byrd Senex puerum
William Byrd Hodie beata Virgo
Jacob Handl Omnes de Saba venient
G.P. da Palestrina Hodie Christus natus est
G.P. da Palestrina Missa Hodie Christus natus est

SINGERS

REVIEW

Friday 23 December 1994, The Age [Melbourne], p.13
New ensemble simply superb
Clive O’Connell

THIS GROUP of 16 singers is a fairly recent addition to the set of choirs that give public concerts, such as
the Melbourne Chorale, the Astra Society, the Tudor Choristers, and the Ormond College Choir.
They have taken their name from a Flemish Renaissance composer whose stature has been overshadowed by
his contemporaries and followers Palestrina, Tallis, Lassus and Byrd. Nevertheless, certain commentators
rank Gombert very highly for his church music’s mysticism and the fluency of his secular chansons.
The ensemble is, in a word, superb. This quality of music-making is so fine that you could kick yourself for
missing the Gombert’s previous concerts.
There are, I think, two factors of some weight that give them an edge over other choral bodies that attempt
similar works: the quality of each member, and the distinction of their director.
The soprano line, for example, boasts Deborah Summerbell, Vivien Hamilton and Deborah Kayser; Margaret
Arnold and Jennifer Mathers are two of the altos; two of the city’s finest young musical talents Calvin
Bowman and Siro Battaglin can be heard in
the tenor quartet; and the powerful bass section has Adrian Phillips and Jerzy Kozlowski.
In fact, most of the faces in the Ensemble Gombert are familiar from other choirs. So they have a great deal
of experience between them; at least half have been solo singers. More to the point, each is a thorough
musician, which is just as well because there is clearly no room in this group for passengers, particularly
when they produced a program like Tuesday’s, where the major work was Palestrina’s eight- part Missa Hodie
Christus natus est.
John O’Donnell has had ups and downs as a choral conductor, but this set of singers must give him great
satisfaction. Their phrasing is finely polished; their realisation of massive block chords thrills with its
controlled power; and as far as I could judge, their pitch did not falter. In the concert’s first half, it was hard to
find a flaw as they moved from Fayrfax’s Magnificat Regale and two settings of Nesciens Mater, through
Gombert’s rich and euphonious O magnum mysterium, to the more familiar reaches of a pair of Byrd motets
and the near-Baroque splendour of Handel’s Omnes de Sabe venient.
It seems as if the director and his singers are making a speciality of Renaissance choral music, and the more
polyphonically complex, the better. There appears to be no other choir occupied in this field; not surprising,
because this night’s work would scare off any competition.
The Ensemble Gombert, most fortunate in its talented personnel, is an outstanding body that demonstrates
one of the most rewarding facets to music of any type: how gifted individuals work together to achieve
gratifyingly high standards.
Clive O’Connell/Courtesy of The Age