Author: Niki

Sunday, 18 January 2015, 8 pm
St Patrick’s Cathedral, Ballarat

Organs of the Ballarat Goldfields Festival
Celebrating the conclusion of the Twentieth Organs of the Ballarat Goldfields Festival

PROGRAM

Georg Frederic Handel Music for the Royal Fireworks and Coronation Anthems

Accademia Arcadia – conducted by John O’Donnell.

REVIEW

Monday, 19 January 2015, The Age [Melbourne], np
Organs of the Ballarat Goldfields review: J. S. Bach Trio Sonatas and Music For a King
Clive O’Connell

MUSICJ. S. BACH TRIO SONATAS ★★Trio Sine Nomine St Andrew’s Church, Ballarat January 18
MUSIC FOR A KING ★★★Ensemble Gombert and Accademia Arcadia St Patrick’s Cathedral January 18

Adaptation was the prime resource for a rather ad hoc ensemble that presented the last recital in Ballarat’s annual serious music festival.Trio Sine Nomine comprises a mixed bag of instruments – oboe Gianfranco Bortolato, violin Claudia Lopez Gomez, harpsichord Michele Benuzzi – for which combination the repertoire is not large.The field of play is made more uneven in that neither melody line involves period instruments, although the string contribution here showed plenty of detachment.In two recitals, these musicians played arrangements of Bach’s six Trio Sonatas, very familiar to organists as technical test-pieces, particularly for their active pedal parts. Yet, in Sunday afternoon’s exercise, the D minor Sonata was arranged for oboe and harpsichord; the fifth sonata in C saw Gomez and Benuzzi as duet interpreters.   The actual trio formation appeared only in the last sonata of the set, BWV 530 in G Major which brought about the afternoon’s most colourful textures, although the performance standard left much to be desired.   Bortolato’s oboe made a forthright contribution to the composer’s supple, mobile constructs, but the keyboard support showed less authority, Benuzzi forcing the pace in the outer movements and occasionally far from confident in figuration work.Gomez gave little away, content to produce a remote, passionless sound in her duet, if showing more flair in the actual trio combination. But you looked in vain for a consistent collegiality; Bortolato kept one’s interest through a well-shaped upper part but he had to work hard for his successes.
Handel took pride of place in the concluding concert, an expanded Ensemble Gombert conducted by artistic director John O’Donnell with the support of Jacqueline Ogeil’s well-populated Accademia Arcadia. In the Royal Fireworks Music, the string nonet and woodwind quartet made a high-quality combination of sound-colours, largely indebted to the reliable efficiency of oboes Kirsten Barry and Owen Watkins. Both horn and trumpet trios had their moments; these were often hard to find in the substantial Overture, though the concluding Minuets made for easier listening. Arwen Johnston’s timpani gave a distractingly obtrusive contribution to the mix and O’Donnell observed every possible repeat.
The following readings of all four Coronation Anthems generated more continuous satisfaction, despite some dynamic imbalances. The singers produced buoyant and energetic accounts of the more declamatory, heroic strophes of each piece; O’Donnell avoided the crescendo cliche of the opening ritornello to Zadok the Priest, so that the choral explosion came over with unexpected force.The less-popular My heart is inditing moved with exemplary clarity from the opening dialogue between solo groups and full choir to the jubilant trumpet-reinforced finale, a realisation packed with light and staid vivacity. But for this listener the evening’s most effective pages came in the second part of The king shall rejoice where the vocal and instrumental balance came close to ideal as oboes, violins and choir generated a simple web or fabric around the Exceeding glad shall he be text; simple in its elements but, as in the best performances, speaking with inspired assurance to the most hardened republican.

Clive O’Connell/Courtesy of The Age