Wednesday, 5 May 2021, 6:30pm
Melbourne Recital Centre – Elisabeth Murdoch Hall
Josquin des Pres, Prince of Music
Melbourne Recital Centre Local Heroes Series 2021
This year marks the 500th anniversary of the death of Josquin des Prez, of whom Martin Luther said, ‘Josquin is master of the notes, which must do as he wishes; other composers must do as the notes wish.’ Ensemble Gombert commemorates this ‘Prince of Music’, as he was known in the 16th century, performing six of his greatest motets. Of these, it is no exaggeration to say that Praeter rerum seriem must be one of the most original works of all time, while Miserere mei, Deus is regarded by some as the greatest musical creation of the Renaissance – one commentator claimed it was the musical equivalent of Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling.
Josquin des Prez
Præter rerum seriem
Stabat Mater
Inviolata, integra, et casta es Maria
Salve Regina
Regina caeli laetare
Miserere mei, Deus
Soprano
Deborah Summerbell; Fiona Seers; Nina Pereira; Katherine Lieschke;
Victoria Brown; Katharina Hochheiser; Claerwen Jones
Alto
Emma Warburton, Yi Wen Chin;
Niki Ebacioni; Gowri Rajendran
Alto/Tenor
Peter Campbell; Abhishek Purty
Tenor
Tim van Nooten; Vaughan McAlley; Michael Stephens
Bass
Andrew Murray; Chetan Noronha; Nicholas Tolhurst;
Thomas Bell; Mike Ormerod; Mark Thawley
REVIEW
Thursday, 6 May 2021, Limelight Magazine [online]
Josquin des Prez, Prince of Music (Ensemble Gombert, Melbourne Recital Centre)
Patricia Maunder
4.5 Stars. Ensemble Gombert’s 30th year did not go to plan due to COVID, so this one-off concert was a welcome return to live performance for the renowned Melbourne choir. A celebration of French composer Josquin des Prez, the program of six motets was performed with a fine balance of studied precision and discreet joy by the 22 singers.
Pleasantly more representative of the Australian community than one might expect of a choir specialising in a cappella performance of Franco-Flemish music of the High Renaissance, Ensemble Gombert stepped onto the stage in casual concert black. They began with Praeter rerum seriem, a work that is austere yet suggestive of mystery, starting low and sombre then building into a polyphonic masterpiece. The choir’s five parts passed the melody between them with beautiful fluidity and, as was the case throughout the performance, sang the text with splendid clarity.
The choir’s ever-calm, avuncular director John O’Donnell then took a few moments to address the audience, explaining that this being the 500th year since Josquin’s death is one of few things known about the composer. Among the interesting snippets he revealed was that the ensemble’s namesake, Nicolas Gombert, may have been a student of Josquin.
The contemplative Stabat Mater followed, then Inviolata, integra, et casta es Maria, notable for its dynamic variety and shifting prominence of voice types: the sopranos, clear and bright, often shine in this concert as one would expect, but here altos also have their moments, and tenors and basses are pleasingly showcased. A slight croak among the tenors at a critical moment of Salve Regina was the only blot on the concert copybook, while Regina caeli laetare, which is almost ostentatious by Josquin’s standards, was a flawless, mellifluous delight of interweaving voices.
O’Donnell’s second and final background offering included a little about this one-hour concert’s finale (and the only work not concerned with the Virgin Mary), Miserere mei, Deus. It has been described, he said, as the musical equivalent of Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling, which was also created in the early 16th century. If that put any pressure on the choir to soar to such heavenly heights, they didn’t show it.
The Miserere mei, Deus is a study in simplicity, most notably the repeated titular phrase sung by the tenors who step up and down in pitch. Other voices flowed in and out in a meditative, almost hypnotic display of tonal variety and harmony. Closing my eyes, the music swept me far away to a time and place when those who first heard this work were certain of the divine, and hopeful of their place in an afterlife where the angels would surely sing like this.
Patricia Maunder/Limelight Magazine
