Category: Concerts

Saturday, 12 December 2009, 8 pm
Xavier College Chapel, Barkers Road, Kew

Subscription Concert 5

After two Venetian Christmas celebrations we return to our High Renaissance fare. Three years ago we performed Mouton’s Christmas motet Quaeramus cum pastoribus along with Morales’ Mass based upon it. This time we are singing another Mass based on the same motet, that by Mouton’s star pupil Adrian Willaert. The program is completed by a selection of motets by one of Gombert’s greatest contemporaries, the prolific but mysteriously named Clemens non Papa.

PROGRAM

Jean Mouton Nesciens mater
Jean Mouton Noe, noe, noe, psallite
Jean Mouton Illuminare, illuminare Jesusalem
Clemens non Papa O magnum mysterium
Clemens non Papa Pastores quidnam vidistis
Clemens non Papa Vox in Rama
Clemens non Papa Ab oriente venerunt magi
Clemens non Papa Videte miraculum
Jean Mouton Quaeramus cum pastoribus
Adrian Willaert Missa Quaeramus cum pastoribus

SOPRANO	ALTO	TENOR	BASS
Deborah Summerbell	Belinda Wong	Peter Campbell	Julien Robinson
Carol Veldhoven	Jennifer Mathers	Tim van Nooten	Chris Potter
Maria Pisani	Rebecca Woods	Vaughan McAlley	Tom Henry
Claerwen Jones	Niki Ebacioni	Stuart Tennant
Kathryn Pisani

 

REVIEW

Monday, 14 December 2009, The Age [Melbourne], page 14
Polyphonic Christmas splendour
Clive O’Connell

Melbournes finest choir took little time to weave an impressive fabric of a cappella polyphonic
splendour on Saturday evening. In a program that confined itself to Renaissance music written for Christmas
Day, the Feast of the Holy Innocents and the Epiphany, John O’Donnell’s 16 singers began with a work of
sumptuous amplitude, Jean Mouton’s 8-part Nesciens mater, in which they established a rolling richness of
deep colour that illustrated the paradox of the Nativity’s domestic simplicity expressed in music of
extraordinary complexity and eloquence.
Keeping to a simple format, the Gomberts followed three Mouton motets with four works in the same form
by Clemens non Papa.
Here also, the set’s opening established a radiant placidity as the familiar text of O magnum mysterium was
amplified to include acclamations of Christ’s birth scene, each half of the motet concluding with a powerfully
moving Nowell: moments when the composer’s expressive assurance found splendid realisation, thanks to
these gifted interpreters.
In the night’s second part, O’Donnell revisited Mouton with the still harmonically surprising Quaeramus cum
pastoribus, followed by Willaert’s Mass based on his teacher’s motet.
The Flemish composer’s lucid textures came in for dramatic treatment, O’Donnell and his choir bringing an
urgency of pulse to this work’s various parts with an occasional reduction to limpid two- and three-line
textures before the burnished glory of the final Agnus Dei gave a muted reflection of the program’s opening.
Once again, this group of well-matched voices enriched the festive season with musical performances of high
quality.
Clive O’Connell/Courtesy of The Age

Tour Concert
Memorial Church, Stanford Univeristy, California, USA
22 September 2009

Josquin Desprez – Inviolata, integra, et casta es Maria
Jean Mouton – Quis dabit oculis nostris
Nicolas Gombert – Hodie nobis caelorum Rex
Thomas Tallis – Loquebantur variis linguis
Clemens non Papa – O magnum mysterium
Morten Lauridsen – O magnum mysterium
Elliott Carter – Musicians wrestle everywhere
Vaughan McAlley – In principio erat verbum
Peter Campbell – Sunrise on the Coast
J.S. Bach – Jesu, meine Freude

REVIEW

“Ensemble Gombert’s Crystalline Polyphony”
Joseph Sargent
San Francisco Classical Voice, 22 Sep. 2009

Some early music ensembles approach the performance of Renaissance polyphony as if it were fine crystal: beautiful, but delicate, a fragile object not to be unduly disturbed. Like crystal, the music can occasionally shimmer and reveal prisms of color when viewed through different angles, but it remains a static object, more a museum piece than a kinetic construct. This analogy aptly summarizes the experience of hearing Ensemble Gombert, a 14-voice chamber choir from Australia specializing in High Renaissance polyphony. Under the direction of John O’Donnell, the group’s performance Tuesday at Stanford University’s Memorial Church showcased some fine vocal qualities and several flashes of light, but often without truly taking flight.

O’Donnell cultivates a warm sound from his singers, refined and a little thin, with some dark hues especially in the women’s voices. It’s finely blended within the sections and generally well balanced, though a stronger alto presence would be welcome at times. At its best the group conveys a highly appealing purity of sound, but other times the effect is of immobility, a feature abetted by O’Donnell’s rigid conducting style.

The evening’s repertory choices fell mostly along two strands: Renaissance sacred polyphony and modern choral works. The differences in approach were often palpable, as evidenced by two pieces of different eras but bearing the same title. The Christmas motet O magnum mysterium (O great mystery) of Jacob Clemens non Papa was elegant, careful, and regular to the point of being foursquare. Repeated iterations of the text “Noe” revealed Ensemble Gombert’s capacity for detailed nuance and left you wanting for more of such gestures. Morten Lauridsen’s O magnum mysterium, in contrast, carried a dramatic arc from solemn opening phrases to a dramatic, thrilling close, marred only by some imprecise attacks along the way.

In Josquin Desprez’ Inviolata, integra, et casta es Maria (Inviolate, pure, and chaste art thou, O Mary) the group’s dark-tinged sound suitably matched the beseeching nature of the text, though a firmer sense of forward motion might have enlivened the plangent closing pleas “O benigna! O Regina! O Maria!” (O generous one! O Queen! O Mary!). A similar pallor lies over Jean Mouton’s Quis dabit oculis nostris (Who will give our eyes [a fountain of tears]), a lament upon the death of Queen Anne of Brittany. Here the ensemble displayed more-pleasing contrasts, from the pristine opening lines to graceful texture alternations between the upper and lower voices.

With the joyful message of Nicolas Gombert’s Hodie nobis caelorum Rex (This day hath the King of heaven [deigned to be born]) the ensemble gathered energy, proclaiming the words with greater vigor and confidently handling the shifting metrical figurations that close each of the work’s two sections. In Thomas Tallis’ responsory Loquebantur variis linguis ([The apostles] were speaking in different tongues), more could have been made of the contrast between the tenor’s fixed declamation of chant and the meandering polyphony surrounding it.

Elliott Carter’s Musicians wrestle everywhere, set to a poem by Emily Dickinson, is a higgledy-piggledy mixture of contrapuntal melodies, texture shifts, and stark declamations. The group ably negotiated the piece’s rapid-fire shifts and dissonant harmonies. Works by two of Ensemble Gombert’s own tenors further enlivened the program. Vaughan McAlley’s In principio erat verbum (In the beginning was the Word), composed in a Renaissance idiom, infused excitement through contrasting sections of counterpoint, solemn homophony, and a sprightly closing declaration of glory. Peter Campbell’s Sunrise on the Coast conveyed a more impressionist feel, the opening bursts of blowing wind yielding to a panoply of shifting styles and moods, with an interior fugue for good measure.

As a closer, J.S. Bach’s masterful funeral motet Jesu, meine Freude affords opportunities for all manner of expression: lively choruses, contemplative trios, stately chorales, and a brisk central double fugue. The ensemble easily handled each movement’s technical challenges and displayed a pleasing range of moods from quiet introspection to vigorous exhortation, which could have been further enhanced through greater dynamic and rhythmic energy.

Joseph Sargent holds a Ph.D. in musicology from Stanford University and teaches at the University of San Francisco.

Saturday, 12 September 2009, 8 pm
Xavier College Chapel, Barkers Road, Kew

Subscription Concert 3

With Barber, Carter and Lauridsen we make our first foray into American music. Barber’s wonderful 1938 setting of Gerard Manley Hopkins’ God’s Grandeur naturally invites comparison with Kenneth Leighton’s 1957 setting of the same poem, while Britten’s Hymn to St. Cecilia has been a long-standing request. The second half of the program features works by members of Ensemble Gombert, past and present.

PROGRAM

Elliott Carter Musicians Wrestle Everywhere
Morten Lauridsen O magnum mysterium
Samuel Barber God’s Grandeur
Kenneth Leighton God’s Grandeur
Benjamin Britten Hymn to St Cecilia
Peter Campbell Sunrise on the Coast [World première]
Vaughan McAlley In principio erat verbum [World première]
Vaughan McAlley Veritas de terra orta est [World première]
Calvin Bowman Missa Vexilla regis [World première] *

* Writing of this work was assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council.

SOPRANO	ALTO	TENOR	BASS
Deborah Summerbell	Belinda Wong	Peter Campbell	Julien Robinson
Carol Veldhoven	Jenny George	Tim van Nooten	Kieran Rowe
Fiona Seers	Niki Ebacioni	Vaughan McAlley	Chris Potter
Maria Pisani	Rebecca Woods	Stuart Tennant	Alistair Clark
Claerwen Jones
Kathryn Pisani

 

REVIEW

Monday, 14 September 2009, The Age [Melbourne], page 14.
New is old as exemplary choir sings premieres
Clive O’Connell

It all depends on what you mean by “our time”, but the most recently written segments of the Ensemble
Gombert’s latest subscription recital sounded noticeably old-fashioned, if not antique.
After offering a small selection of American and British works, John O’Donnell and his exemplary choir sang
world premieres of short pieces by two of the Gombert tenor personnel.
First was Peter Campbell’s staid, only slightly adventurous Sunrise on the Coast, a setting of an A. B.
Paterson lyric; then came Vaughan McAlley’s responses to two Latin liturgical texts written in a vocabulary
recalling Renaissance masters and the Gabrielis’ Venice.
Calvin Bowman’s new Missa Vexilla regis uses parts of the eponymous plainchant and moves rapidly
through the familiar texts with a pleasure in candid sonorities, spiced by unexpected sideways harmonic
moves. Like his Australian colleagues on this night, Bowman avoids grinding dissonances, making this new
mass easy to assimilate.
The most contemporary-sounding music came in centenarian Elliott Carter’s Musicians Wrestle Everywhere,
a bristling 1945 mesh of polyphonic devices, against which Britten’s almost contemporary Hymn to St Cecilia
sounded tame, if rather rushed in this performance.
But the most affecting music-making emerged during two juxtaposed settings of the Hopkins sonnet God’s
Grandeur by Samuel Barber and Kenneth Leighton: similar but individual, sung with evenly spread
accomplishment right through to their spell-binding final bars.
Clive O’Connell/Courtesy of The Age

 

Saturday, 7 March 2009, 8pm
Xavier College Chapel, Barkers Road, Kew

Subscription Concert 1

This concert commemorates the French composer Jean Mouton some 550 years after his birth. The first part of the program is a succession of motets composed for auspicious occasions in the life of the French court, to which Mouton was attached for the last two decades of his life. The second part is devoted to a single Marian motet followed by a Mass based upon it by the Spaniard Cristóbal de Morales.

PROGRAM

Jean Mouton O Christe redemptor, O rex omnipotens
Jean Mouton Caeleste beneficium
Jean Mouton Non nobis Domine, non nobis
Jean Mouton Quis dabit oculis nostris
Jean Mouton Missus est angelus Gabriel
Jean Mouton Domine salvum fac regem
Jean Mouton Exalta Regina Galliae
Jean Mouton Benedicta es caelorum regina
Cristóbal de Morales Missa Benedicta es caelorum regina

SOPRANO	ALTOS	TENOR	BASS
Deborah Summerbell	Belinda Wong	Peter Campbell	Kieran Rowe
Carol Veldhoven	Jennifer Mathers	Tim van Nooten	Julien Robinson
Fiona Seers	Jenny George	Vaughan McAlley	Chris Potter
Maria Pisani	Niki Ebacioni	Stuart Tennant	Tim Daly
Claerwen Jones
Kathryn Pisani

 

REVIEW
Tuesday, 10 March 2009, The Age [Melbourne], page 14.
Vocal display of grace and balance
Clive O’Connell

Under director John O’Donnell, the Ensemble Gombert opened its five-concert annual series with a
program consisting largely of motets by one of France’s greatest composers during the middle Renaissance.
Unusually for this expert choral group, much of Saturday night’s music-making required only four lines, the
effect in the recital’s first half one of piercing clarity, particularly in the sequence of apostrophes that occupy
much of the length in O Christe redemptor: one of several addresses to the Almighty to increase the
child-production rate of that unfortunate lady Anne of Brittany, who married three times without producing
the requisite son.
Not that Mouton’s music turns to the lugubrious when referring to the daughter-cursed queen; the fluency of
the eight motets sung by the Gomberts demonstrated the composer’s grace of utterance, sense of dynamic
balance, proportionate weighting of vocal layers, and interesting if unadventurous textures. Mouton had an
eye for textual highlighting, shown by his rare repetition of focal lines and employment of homophonic
movement when words held high significance, as during the deploration on Anne’s death, Quis dabit oculis
nostris.
Probably the most striking music of the night sounded the most atypical. The solid Missus est angelus Gabriel
tells the annunciation story pretty close to St Luke’s version but in a polyphonic five-line onslaught that
prefigures the sonorous grandeur of the Gabrielis’ Venice. The Gomberts produced a powerful sound, as
impervious to disruption as a waterfall, an engrossing display of vocal consonance in action.
Later, the ensemble sang another Marian motet, Benedicta es caelorum regina, and the Mass based on its
content by Morales. Apart from some coarseness from the tenors at the motet’s opening, this half of the night
generated the same impression of mastery, with the added benefit of the Spanish composer’s longer-breathed
melodic lines, his Mass ending in a moving Agnus Dei that started in the orthodox four parts, moved to
plainchant, then concluded in a full-bodied six-line texture displaying the female voices in this fine group.
Clive O’Connell/Courtesy of The Age

Saturday, 13 December 2008, 8 pm
Xavier College Chape, Barkers Road, Kew

Subscription Concert 5

This is not the celebrated Monteverdi Vespers of 1610, but a selection of vespers music from his large 1640 compilation. While the earlier collection is often associated with St Mark’s, Venice, it was actually composed in Mantua, before Monteverdi’s Venetian years. The music of the 1640 publication, however, is true Venetian music, perhaps composed over a period of a quarter of a century, yet all of these pieces demonstrate Monteverdi’s undiminished creative powers.

PROGRAM

Monteverdi’s Christmas Vespers (from his 1640 publication)

Claudio Monteverdi Versiculus et responsorium
Paulo Quagliati [organ] Toccata dell’ottavo tuono
Claudio Monteverdi Dixit Dominus
Andrea Gabrieli [organ] Intonatione del secundo tono
Claudio Monteverdi Confitebor
Andrea Gabrieli [organ] Intonatione del quinto tono
Claudio Monteverdi Beatus vir
Andrea Gabrieli [organ] Intonatione del ottavo tono
Claudio Monteverdi Laudate pueri
Andrea Gabrieli [organ] Intonatione del settimo tono
Claudio Monteverdi Laudate Dominum omnes gentes
Paulo Quagliati [organ] Canzona
Claudio Monteverdi Christe, Redemptor omnium
Andrea Gabrieli [organ] Intonatione del primo tono
Claudio Monteverdi Magnificat primi toni

SOPRANO	ALTO	TENOR	BASS
Deborah Summerbell	Jennifer Mathers	Peter Campbell	Kieran Rowe
Carol Veldhoven	Belinda Wong	Tim Van Nooten	Tom Henry
Fiona Seers	Niki Ebacioni	Daniel Thomson	Chris Potter
Kathryn Pisani	Jenny George	Matthew Thomson	Tim Daly
Maria Pisani
Claerwen Jones

Instrumental ensemble
John O’Donnell – chamber organ

REVIEW

Monday, 15 December 2008, The Age [Melbourne], page 16.
Spirit soars in simple hymn of repemption
Clive O’Connell

FOLLOWING a pattern set in last year’s Christmas-to-Candlemas recital, the Ensemble Gombert presented
interleaving Venetian works: psalm-settings, a hymn and Magnificat from Monteverdi’s so-called Christmas
Vespers, interspersed with organ intonations and toccatas by Andrea Gabrieli and Quagliati supplied by the
conductor John O’Donnell.
Pairs of violins and bass viols, one violone, a sackbut and Samantha Cohen’s theorbo supplied a solid
instrumental support for the voices that offered added interest.
The tenor line now enjoys two more high-flying voices in Daniel and Matthew Thomson, while Peter
Campbell’s stalwart efforts have a worthy foil in Tim van Nooten whose timbre has broadened in colour and
confidence. A similar invigorating experience emerged hearing sopranos Fiona Seers and Claerwen Jones
take on heavy responsibilities, notably in the Magnificat.
But the evening’s surprise came through a simple hymn, Christe, redemptor omnium. No clever detail here;
just a shapely melody treated with sensitivity and a crisp sparkle, spot-on for this season’s celebrations.

Clive O’Connell/Courtesy of The Age