Saturday, 5 September 2015, 5.30pm
Xavier College Chapel, Barkers Road, Kew
Subscription Concert 3
From an embarrassment of riches we have selected a handful of the choir’s – and, we believe, audiences’ – favourites from a quarter of a century of choral performance. The first half of the program features three of the most powerful works of the High Renaissance followed by six of the thirty-four motets that make up the 1575 Cantiones sacrae, the first printed motets in England. The second half is geared toward the audiences of our forthcoming European tour, focussed on Germany, showcasing masterpieces of the Early and Late Baroque and Romantic eras.
| Program | |
|---|---|
| Josquin Desprez | Praeter rerum seriem |
| Nicolas Gombert | Regina caeli laetare |
| Clemens non Papa | Fremuit spiritu Jesus |
| Thomas Tallis | Miserere nostri, Domine In ieiunio et fletu Derelinquat impius |
| William Byrd | Siderum rector Emendemus in melius Attollite portas |
| Johann Hermann Schein | Das ist mir lieb |
| Johann Sebastian Bach | Komm, Jesu, komm |
| Johannes Brahms | Drei Motetten, Opus 110 |
| Vaughan McAlley | To Rosamounde |
SINGERS
| Soprano Deborah Summerbell Carol Veldhoven Katharina Hochheiser Kathryn Pisani Claerwen Jones Sarah Harris |
Alto Belinda Wong Juliana Kay Yi Wen Chin Niki Ebacioni Gowri Rajendran Rebecca Collins |
Tenor Peter Campbell Tim van Nooten Vaughan McAlley Michael Stephens Stuart Tennant |
Bass Nicholas Tolhurst Michael Strasser Mike Ormerod Thomas Bell Andrew Fysh |
When we gave our first performance on 2 June 1990 a 25th anniversary was not in our sights. Our repertoire was totally High Renaissance Franco-Flemish, and an essential part of our raison d’etre was my research into musica ficta in this period. We were jolted out of our Renaissance specialisation within a year when we were invited to perform works by Petr Eben in his presence; and the following year we found ourselves singing William Harris and Edumund Rubbra competing in (and winning) the National Choral Championships in Wagga Wagga. The generations of Josquin, Gombert and Lassus nevertheless remained our major focus, though Bach was soon on the menu, as well as Brahms from 1997, the centenary of his death. In the current century we have increasingly sung works by living composers, including member, past and present, of the choir: Calvin Bowman, Vaughan McAlley and Peter Campbell. Our 2005 Australian premiere of the Kanon pokajanen of Arvo Part was an especially memorable event.
It remains for me to say a big thank you to our audiences of the past quarter of a century and especially to the many choristers who have made up Ensemble Gombert over that time. And very special thanks to the two choristers of the original choir who are still contributing strongly: Deborah Summerbell and Carol Veldhoven.
John O’Donnell