Category: Concerts

Sunday 17 April 2010, 2 pm
Melbourne Recital Centre, 31 Sturt Street. Southbank

Conducted by Jeremy Summerly (Royal Academy of Music, London) with a period instrument ensemble led by Rachel Beesley and featuring Ensemble Gombert, The Choir of Trinity College, Melbourne, The Consort of Melbourne, and outstanding vocalists. This landmark choral event is presented by the Melbourne Recital Centre.

PROGRAM

J.S. Bach St Matthew Passion (Matthäus-Passion)

SOPRANO	ALTOS	TENOR	BASS
Deborah Summerbell	Belinda Wong	Peter Campbell	Kieran Rowe
Carol Veldhoven	Jennifer Mathers	Tim van Nooten	Alistair Clark
Fiona Seers	Rebecca Woods	Vaughan McAlley
Claerwen Jones	Niki Ebacioni	Stuart Tennant
Maria Pisani
Kathryn Pisani

The Consort of Melbourne
The Choir of Trinity College, Melbourne
Ensemble Gombert
Trebles of Melbourne Grammar School Chapel Choir
Ironwood Chamber Orchestra
Rachel Beesley – concertmaster
Julia Fredersdorff – concertmaster
Robert Macfarlane – Evangelist
Michael Leighton Jones – Christus
Siobhàn Stagg – soprano solo
Lynette Alcantara – alto solo
Paul Bentley – tenor solo
Peter Tregear – bass solo

REVIEWS

Tuesday, 19 April 2011, The Age [Melbourne], page 15.
A long afternoon with Bach’s Passion
Clive O’Connell

A mixture of Melbourne-based choirs proved the main attraction at Sunday’s performance of Bach’s St Matthew Passion. Without a program, I could identify only some participants, but members of the Ensemble Gombert, the Consort of Melbourne and Trinity College Choir featured among the personnel whose chorales made welcome hiatus points throughout the reading.

British conductor Jeremy Summerly directed a straightforward account of this Baroque masterwork, giving plenty of room to the music’s powerful drama by encouraging the vocal forces to produce full-blooded attacks. The double orchestra sounded uneven, one more careful with tuning and production than the other in a vibrato-free environment. When the oboists switched to caccia instruments, the duet timbres sounded unharnessed, their support tending to detract from the soloist.

As a central duo, Michael Leighton Jones’s Christus and Robert Macfarlane’s Evangelist made fine partners. Peter Tregear accounted for the bass arias with precise pitching and insistent accents, while the other three soloists enjoyed passages of fair quality. Unfailingly consistent accounts of the massive top-and-tail choral movements, reinforced by a laudably willing boys’ choir in part 1, raised the long afternoon’s achievement level considerably.

 

Tuesday, 19 April 2011, The Australian [Sydney], n.p.
Harmonic breakdowns overshadow and otherwise admirable venture
Chris Boyd

IN the margins of Puccini’s manuscript score for La Boheme, Mimi’s death is marked by a skull and crossbones.

Christ’s death in later versions of Bach’s St Matthew Passion is marked by nothing more than a gasp from the organ. In this performance, that mortal gasp was followed by a prolonged and perfect silence, mercifully unpunctuated by coughing or the rustling of librettos. That awe-inspiring silence was one of the more dramatic moments in an ambitious and risky venture that combined period and non-period instruments as well as period and non-period choirs.

Instead of a clash of thirds and sixths, as we might have expected, the meshing of the choirs was rarely less than felicitous. More often than not it was glorious. (One assumes that Ensemble Gombert has had more practice adapting to modern tunings and a variety of temperings than the other choirs have had.) Instrumentally, for the most part the lion and the lamb snuggled up together, too: the excellent viola da gamba sat well with the cellos, the violone with the double bass. Only the woodwinds sat in mutinous isolation.

Yet there were three clear instances when this performance came off the rails. The first was in the opening, when the massed orchestral forces generated a muddy and ugly sound. The second, just short of the climax of part one, was marked by some treacherous phrasing in the oboes. The third, near the end of the performance, was a tug of war between the bassoon-like fagotto and oboe da caccia on one side and the strings and voices on the other. Caught in the middle was singer Peter Tregear, whose light bass was pitched somewhere in between the competing armies. The timing and magnitude of these breakdowns in harmony overshadowed what was otherwise an admirable performance.

Robert Macfarlane as the Evangelist has the heroic tenor, agile and youthful, one would kill to hear in a performance of Beethoven’s Ninth. His singing was a delight. Lynette Alcantara brought genuine emotion to the alto solo. With great skill and tact, Siobhan Stagg began the soprano solo with a treble-like tone, then opened her voice to bring a more womanly presence, as required. Even Katherine Norman’s contribution – just a single sung line as the first maid – was bewitching.

On double bass, Kirsty McCahon was a vital presence. And Jeremy Summerly’s confidence-inspiring conducting was precise and economical. It was a shame he didn’t tune up one more time.

Saturday 12 March at 8 pm
Xavier College Chapel Barkers Rd, Kew

Subscription Concert 1

The discovery, in 1571, of the Ridolfi plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth and replace her with Mary, Queen of Scots, led to a royal determination to observe Lent in 1572 with the utmost piety. This program present the finest Lenten music of the period, all of which, on grounds of provenance and style, could have been composed specifically for this special Lenten observance.

PROGRAM

William Byrd Emendemus in melius
William Byrd Memento homo
Thomas Tallis Miserere nostri
Thomas Tallis In ieiunio et fletu
Thomas Tallis Derelinquat impius
Thomas Tallis Lamentations
Robert White Lamentations
Osbert Parsley Lamentations
William Byrd Lamentations
Robert White Miserere mei, Deus

SOPRANO	ALTOS	TENOR	BASS
Deborah Summerbell	Belinda Wong	Peter Campbell	Kieran Rowe
Carol Veldhoven	Jenny Mathers	Tim van Nooten	Samuel Allchurch
Katherine Norman	Yi Wen Chin	Vaughan McAlley	Alistair Clark
Kathryn Pisani	Niki Ebacioni	Stuart Tennant	Jeremy Bottomley
Claerwen Jones	Gowri Rajendran
Maria Pisani	Rebecca Woods

REVIEW

Monday, 14 March 2011, The Age [Melbourne], page 21.
Pious evening of majestic control
Clive O’Connell

JOHN O’Donnell and the Ensemble Gombert gave a remarkable musical picture of what Lent might have been like at the court of Elizabeth I where the season was observed with thankful piety.

The Gomberts met the challenge of delivering some of the finest and emotionally charged Tudor works with customary control.

The 20-strong body began with five motets by Byrd and Tallis, three of them completely new to this listener’s live experience. Following this majestic sequence, O’Donnell took his forces through four Lamentations settings, none of which replicated the others in textual material but showed a collegiality of emotional and intellectual response.

The Tallis setting was the most well known, followed by others by Robert White, the obscure Norwich composer Osbert Parsley, and a youthful treatment by Byrd, with White’s setting of Psalm 50 rounding off the night as it does each Tenebrae service in Holy Week.

Expert as the singers’ sustained accomplishment was, the most memorable moments came in Tallis’s seven-voice Miserere nostri, a marvel of canonic construction and here splendidly carried off with an enviable plasticity of texture.
Clive O’Connell/Courtesy of The Age

Saturday, 11 December 2010, 8pm
Xavier College, Barkers Road, Kew

Subscription Concert 5

Our annual Christmas to Candlemas takes various shapes, at times presenting a miscellany, at other times focussing on a single composer. To date Palestrina, Lassus and Monteverdi have been accorded single-composer status, and now, just before the quattro-centenary of his death, we devote a program to the great Spaniard Tomàs Luis de Victoria. His motet O magnum mysterium is perhaps the best-known setting of this text, and the major work of the program is the Mass based on this motet.

PROGRAM

Tomas Luis de Victoria (1548-1611) Christe, Redemptor omnium
Tomas Luis de Victoria O Regem caeli
Tomas Luis de Victoria Quem vidistis, pastores?
Tomas Luis de Victoria Salvete, flores Martyrum
Tomas Luis de Victoria O magnum mysterium
Tomas Luis de Victoria Hostis Herodes impie
Tomas Luis de Victoria Magi viderunt stellam
Tomas Luis de Victoria Senex puerum portabat
Tomas Luis de Victoria Missa O magnum mysterium
Kyrie – Gloria – Sanctus – Agnus Dei

 

SOPRANO	ALTO	TENOR	BASS
Deborah Summerbell	Jennifer Mathers	Peter Campbell	Steven Hodgson
Katherine Norman	Rebecca Woods	Tim Van Nooten	Tim Daly
Carol Veldhoven	Niki Ebacioni	Daniel Thomson	Jerzy Kozlowski
Kathryn Pisani	Gowri Rajendran	Stuart Tennant
Maria Pisani
Claerwen Jones

 

REVIEW

Monday, 13 December 2010, The Age [Melbourne], n.p.
Christmas to Candlemas
Clive O’Connell

IN AN all-too-brief concert, the excellent Ensemble Gombert presented its annual Christmas program on Saturday night, two days after the fine Consort of Melbourne gave its seasonal celebration.

While the Consort and instrumental partners La Compania revelled in the music of Palestrina and Praetorius, the Gombert singers under John O’Donnell centred on works by Tomas Luis de Victoria – with Palestrina, one of the major composers of Counter-Reformation art and a master of subtle verbal coloration.

Without taking a break, O’Donnell took his forces through three hymns, five motets and the terse Mass O magnum mysterium, based on the composer’s well-known setting. Impressive as always were the group’s four tenors, articulating the plainchant verses of each hymn with certainty and that uniformity of attack you find in the best prepared vocal bodies.

Still, much of this music’s effect depends on the sopranos who often find themselves in exposed situations above the altos and on this night seemingly miles above the rolling basses of Steven Hodgson, Tim Daly and Jerzy Kozlowski.

Even in this intense and sharply etched demonstration of vocal craft you could find moments of exceptional impact, such as the stately interweaving of parts in the O magnum mysterium motet or the gleaming subtleties of Quem vidistis, pastores?, which pictures the central Christmas tableau in music of striking emotional fervour.

When you hear music-making of this quality, the essence of this season’s spiritual significance comes to vivid life beyond tawdry presents and gimcrack decorations.

Once again, we are indebted to the Ensemble Gombert musicians for their inspiring display of choral accomplishment.
Clive O’Connell/Courtesy of The Age

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

Saturday, 17 April 2010, 8pm
Xavier College Chapel, Barkers Road, Kew

Subscription Concert 2

The challenge of writing many polyphonic lines without forbidden consecutive unisons, fifths or octaves was something that Renaissance composers relished. Most were contented to develop the technique to a maximum of six or eight voices, but there were those who set themselves higher goals, among whom Antoine Brumel was possibly the first to write a whole Mass for twelve voices. The work is based on the Easter Lauds antiphon Et ecce terrae motus, and our program complements it with contemporaneous works for the Easter season.

PROGRAM

Antoine Busnoys Victimae paschali laudes
Heinrich Isaac De Resurrectione Domini
Introitus: Resurrexi
Graduale: Haec Dies
Alleluia: Pascha nostrum
Prosa: Laudes Salvatori voce
Communio: Pascha nostrum
Josquin Desprez In exitu Israel
Antoine Brumel Missa Et ecce terrae motus
Kyrie – Gloria – Credo – Sanctus
Nicolas Gombert Regina caeli laetare

DISCANTUS	CONTRATENOR	TENOR	BASSUS
Deborah Summerbell	Belinda Wong	Tim Van Nooten	Julien Robinson
Carol Veldhoven	Jennifer Mathers	Matthew Thomson	Thomas Drent
Kathryn Pisani	Rebecca Woods	Frank Prain	Alistair Clark
Kristy Biber	Peter Campbell	Stuart Tennant	Chris Potter
Maria Pisani	Niki Ebacioni	Daniel Thomson	Tim Daly
Katherine Norman	Paul Bentley		Nick Dinopolous

 

REVIEW

Tuesday, 20 April 2010, The Age [Melbourne], page 13.
Choir for connoisseurs rejoices in angelic praises
Clive O’Connell

THE latest program offered by the Ensemble Gombert, directed by John O’Donnell, divided cleanly into two
parts celebrating the Easter season. For Saturday evening’s first half, the singers worked through music for
four voices: Isaac’s De Resurrectione Domini that comprises settings of the propers for the Easter Sunday
Mass, bracketed by the Binchois motet Victimae paschali laudes and In exitu Israel attributed to Josquin
Desprez.

After interval, the choir expanded for the night’s sumptuous centrepiece, Brumel’s famous mass in 12 lines,
with a pendant motet for the same multiple layers, Regina coeli laetare, by the group’s patron composer.
A few changes in personnel find the group’s alto line taking in a pair of countertenors, Peter Campbell and
Paul Bentley, which gives the choral mix an added aggressive timbre, most immediately noticeable in parts of
the Isaac settings like the focal Prosa/Sequence with its polyphonic verses. In similar fashion, the four basses
in this part of the night were dominated by the reinforcing power of Tim Daly during the solid Josquin setting
of Psalms 114 and 115.

Brumel’s mass based on the plainchant Et ecce terrae motus received an impassioned reading, its opening
sections yielding powerful waves of sonority as chords changed texture with a vehement address. The score’s
longer sections — Credo and Sanctus/Benedictus — offer a wealth of textural variety, but where the
Gomberts excelled was in the massive blocks of interweaving chords, making a stunning impact in the
treatment of the words in excelsis with a sudden leap from a spare duet for soprano and countertenor lines to
an explosion of sonority: one of music’s finest depictions of the endless angelic praises that hurtle around
Heaven’s throne.
Clive O’Connell/Courtesy of The Age

Correction:
The composer named Binchois should instead be named Busnoys