Category: Concerts

Concert 2: Saturday 29 March at 8 pm
Xavier College Chapel, Barkers Rd, Kew

Subscription Concert 2

Some of the composers represented here were Austrian imports while others were home grown. But all works were composed in Austria, some for Catholic liturgical use, Brahms’s motets possibly for Lutheran use, Schubert’s Hebrew setting of the 92nd Psalm for the Jewish synagogue, while the Isaac, Vaet and Schoenberg works are non-liturgical. Of course Austria’s best-known sacred music consists of Masses for soloists, choir and orchestra, but this program shows that there was also a fine a cappella tradition spanning the centuries.

 

Program
Heinrich Isaac	Virgo prudentissima
Jacobus Vaet	Continuo lacrimas
Philippe de Monte	Super flumina Babylonis
Johann Stadlmayr	O magnum mysterium
Johann Fux	Three Offertoria: Ad te, Domine, levavi Ave Maria, gratia plena Tollite portas
Johann Ernst Eberlin	Two Offertoria Bonum est confiteri Domino Improperium exspectavit cor meum
Arnold Schoenberg	Friede auf Erden
Franz Schubert	Der 92. Psalm
Johannes Brahms	Drei Motetten, Opus 110

 

SINGERS

Soprano Deborah Summerbell Carol Veldhoven Katherine Norman Maria Pisani Claerwen Jones Kathryn Pisani

Alto Belinda Wong Yi Wen Chin Niki Ebacioni Rebecca Collins

Tenor Peter Campbell Tim van Nooten Vaughan McAlley Stuart Tennant

Bass Andrew Murray Thomas Bland Michael Strasser Mike Ormerod

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REVIEW

Tuesday, 1 April 2014, The Age [Melbourne], n.p.
Singers traverse years in the Ensemble Gombert’s Five Centuries of Austrian a capella sacred music
Clive O’Connell

Five Centuries of Austrian A Cappella Sacred Music
Ensemble Gombert
Xavier College Chapel
March 29

John O’Donnell’s excellent choral group covered a vast field and unearthed some surprises. The Gomberts rarely disappoint, carrying along some stodgy material through a thorough professionalism and uniformity of timbre generally sustained for lengthy paragraphs, if not entire works.

O’Donnell began his cross-centuries journey with the motet Virgo prudentissima by Heinrich Isaac, a striking six-line structure that oscillates between duets for upper voices and massive complexes that manage to sound static on top and seething with action under the surface. This work set a high benchmark, sustained through a following clutch of briefer pieces.

A set of three offertoria by Johann Fux showed the teacher of counterpoint putting theory into heavy-handed practice. With a lurch into the 19th century, matters improved through Schubert’s venture into Hebrew, a setting of Psalm 92 distinguished for its robust reverence.

The Three Motets Op. 110 by Brahms are better known and combined melodic generosity with emotional compression. The most difficult music-making came in Schoenberg’s Friede auf Erden, packed with harmonic stumbling blocks and a linear mesh that never stops challenging its executants. These singers produced a fluent and level-headed reading, working through its uncompromising linear argument with exemplary dedication.
Clive O’Connell/Courtesy of The Age

Concert 1: Saturday 22 February 2014 at 8 pm
Xavier College Chapel, Barkers Rd, Kew

Subscription Concert 1

When Anne of Brittany, uniquely the wife of two successive French kings, as well as Duchess of Brittany in her own right, died on 9 January 1514, her funeral lasted for forty days. Such an extended ceremony must have involved a lot of music, though only the three motets presented here can be identified with certainty. Nevertheless it is generally accepted that Prioris’s fine Requiem was also written for the occasion.

 

 

Program
Jean Mouton (c.1459-1522)	Quis dabit oculis nostris
Pierre Moulu (1484?-c.1550)	Fière Attropos
Costanzo Festa (c.1490-1543)	Quis dabit oculis nostris
Josquin Desprez (c.1450-1521)	De profundis
Johannes Prioris (c.1460-c.1514)	Requiem Introitus: Requiem aeternam Kyrie Graduale: Si ambulum Sequentia: Dies irae (Gregorian chant) Offertorium: Domine Jesu Christe Sanctus Agnus Dei Communio: Lux aeterna

 

SINGERS

Soprano Carol Veldhoven Deborah Summerbell Maria Pisani Claerwen Jones Kathryn Pisani

Alto Belinda Wong Yi Wen Chin Niki Ebacioni Miranda Gronow

Tenor Peter Campbell Tim van Nooten Vaughan McAlley Stuart Tennant

Bass Andrew Murray Thomas Bland Chris Potter Michael Strasser Jerzy Kozlowski

 

REVIEW

Tuesday, 25 Febrary 2014, The Age [Melbourne], n.p.
Ensemble Gombert in fine renditions of funeral music for Anne of Brittany
Clive O’Connell

Commemorating Anne Of Brittany
Ensemble Gombert
Xavier College Chapel
February 22

When she died in 1514 aged 31, Duchess Anne of Brittany had been married to a German emperor and two French kings and had had 14 pregnancies. The last independent ruler of her state, she was a notable arts patron and her funeral rites lasted for 40 days, involving a good deal of music, although very few original compositions for these ceremonies have been documented.

For Saturday’s opening Ensemble Gombert series recital, artistic director John O’Donnell put together a program of works, both definites and maybes, connected with this remarkable woman’s extended obsequies, the most significant a Requiem by Johannes Prioris. This mass reveals an honest individuality and the choir gave it a finely-shaped performance with a satisfying balance between soprano and bass lines, notably in the rich Kyrie and a calmly celebratory Agnus Dei, although the well-worn plainchant Dies irae sequence seemed an odd if suitably sombre interpolation.

Two settings of the text Quis dabit oculis nostris, by Jean Mouton and Costanzo Festa, showed once again the Gomberts’ hallmarks of linear balance and controlled power. This was further substantiated by a glowing reading of Josquin’s late five-part De profundis with an interpretative depth that distinguishes this ensemble’s work at its best.
Clive O’Connell/Courtesy of The Age

Concert 5: Saturday 7 December at 8 pm
Xavier College Chapel, Barkers Rd, Kew

Subscription Concert 5

Due to illness, the planned concert of Jacobean music with viols and organ was postponed until 2014.

For their final concert for 2013, Ensemble Gombert’s Christmas to Candlemas concert also spans the centuries. Francis Poulenc completed his Four Motets for Christmas Time in 1952, and held them in very high regard amongst his choral pieces. They are also great favourites among choirs and audiences.

Ensemble Gombert, directed by John O’Donnell, presents each of Poulenc’s Christmas motets along with two Renaissance settings of the same text. Herbert Howells’ atmospheric Nunc dimittis also receives the same treatment. The Renaissance pieces include many perennial Ensemble Gombert favourites.

 

Program
Hodie Christus natus est	Francis Poulenc (1899–1963) Andrea Gabrieli (1532/3–1585) Giovanni Bassano (1560/1–1617)
O magnum mysterium	Francis Poulenc Nicolas Gombert (c.1495-c.1560) Clemens non Papa (1510/15–1555/6)
Quem vidistis, pastores?	Francis Poulenc Tomás Lis de Victoria (1548-1611) Richard Dering (c.1580–1630)
Videntes stellam	Francis Poulenc Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525–1594) Orlande de Lassus (1532–1594)
Nunc dimittis	Herbert Howells (1892–1983) Costanzo Festa (c.1490–1545) Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina

 

SINGERS

Soprano Deborah Summerbell Carol Veldhoven Katherine Norman Maria Pisani Claerwen Jones Kathryn Pisani

Alto Belinda Wong Yi Wen Chin Niki Ebacioni Rebecca Collins

Tenor Peter Campbell Tim van Nooten Vaughan McAlley Stuart Tennant

Bass Andrew Murray Thomas Bland Thomas Baldwin Mike Ormerod

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REVIEW

Monday, 9 December 2013, The Age [Melbourne], n.p.
Brandenburg and Gombert ensembles serve very different Christmas fare
Clive O’Connell

Noel Noel: Christmas To Candlemas
Australian Brandenburg Orchestra and Choir
Melbourne Recital Centre, December 7;
Ensemble Gombert
Xavier College Chapel, December 7

Just like last year, these two ensembles presented contrasting programs on the same evening. For a full Murdoch Hall, Paul Dyer and his Sydney visitors went for a stroll around and beyond the Christmas repertoire, the Brandenburg Choir at its best in firmly drawn versions of two Anglican favourites in Hosanna to the Son of David and Farrant’s Lord, For Thy Tender Mercy’s Sake, later showing more well-balanced ensemble in Silent Night with verses sung in German, Gaelic, Welsh and a reassuring English to finish, followed by a gutsy O Come, All Ye Faithful.

Christine Leonard’s saxophone reappeared, as clear-cut as last time, complemented by Matthew Manchester expertly alternating between cornetto, tin whistle, border pipe and the drone-like Hummelchen. The rest of the ABO ensemble comprised five strings, Tommie Anderson’s guitars, a chamber organ and some percussion, with Dyer hamming it up at the harpsichord. The vocal soloist, countertenor Maximilian Riebl, was exercised throughout. With a well-projected voice that still has much to learn about breath control and phrasing, Riebl led the Wexford Carol and Rolf Lovland’s Raise Your Voices!

Some aberrations crept in, like a camped-up Santa Baby and a glee-club White Christmas. But the reception was consistently warm.

John O’Donnell and his formidable ensemble chose five seasonal texts, then illustrated their interpretations by various composers. Poulenc’s Quatre motets and Herbert Howells’ Nunc dimittis opened each segment, followed by settings from notable Renaissance masters – Clemens non Papa, Victoria, Palestrina, Lassus and Gombert (naturally).

The modern works came over with considerable flair, as did some of the earlier-composer pieces, like Clemens’ haunting O Magnum Mysterium and Richard Dering’s concise Quem vidistis setting.

But the group’s vocal mix is less coherent than in previous years, not as emotionally transporting. An over-prominent tenor, ragged high soprano entries and an underpowered bass line distracted from the occasional flashes of glowing choral meshes that used to be consistent fare at these recitals.
Clive O’Connell/Courtesy of The Age