Category: Reviews

Tuesday 27 August 1996 at 8pm
Xavier College Chapel, Barkers Road, Kew

Subscription Concert 3

PROGRAM

Nicolas Gombert  Regina caeli laetare a 12
Nicolas Gombert O beata Maria a 5
Nicolas Gombert  Magnificat octavi toni a 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 & 8
Nicolas Gombert Credo a 8
Nicolas Gombert Mort et fortune a 4
Orlande de Lassus  Magnificat tertii toni a 5 super Mort et fortune
Nicolas Gombert  In illo tempore a 6
Claudio Monteverdi  Missa da Capella a sei voci, fatta sopra il motetto In illo tempore del Gomberti

SOPRANO	ALTO	TENOR	BASS
Deborah Summerbell	Katherine Wells	Philip Legge	Adrian Phillips
Carol Veldhoven	Margaret Arnold	Andrew Green	Andrew Williams
Lisette Wesseling	Jennifer Mathers	Matthew Flood	Andrew Fysh
Fiona Seers	Lynette Richardson	Timothy O’Connor	Jerzy Kozlowski

REVIEWS

Thursday 29 August 1996, The Age [Melbourne], p.4
Ensemble a soaring success
Stephen Ingham

“MEDIA vita in morte sumus.” Thus begins an anonymous 11th century text: “in the midst of life we are in
death.” In an era of plagues, wars and famines, these words had a special resonance for composers and their
audiences. Tuesday’s concert in Xavier College by the Ensemble Gombert under the direction of John
O’Donnell brought together three contrasting settings of the Media vita, each one for six unaccompanied
choral parts, and all composed in the 16th century.
The plain white interior and spacious architecture of Xavier College’s Chapel proved an excellent venue, both
aesthetically and acoustically, for the 16 well-matched voices.
By paying careful attention to intonation (their aim is to preserve the purity of certain musical intervals, a
purity severely compromised by modern approaches to tuning) and developing a single, monolithic tone
quality with a uniform dynamic, the Gomberts have carved themselves a niche alongside Australia’s foremost
exponents of high-Renaissance vocal repertoire.
John Sheppard, an English composer of the Tudor period, is not generally well known but, judging by the
evidence of his Media vita setting, is unquestionably one of the finest of his day. Anyone wishing to be
initiated into the remote and exquisite world of Tudor church music need look no further than the Tallis
Scholars’ excellent recording of this astonishing piece.
O’Donnell’s singers coped well with the soaring upper parts and the grinding dissonances caused by clashing
major and minor modes, the so-called “false relations” that composers such as Purcell went on to exploit in
later years.
Nicholas Gombert’s setting was less spectacular, but equally plangent in its expressive handling of
dissonance, whereas Orlando Lassus’s treatment is much more consistently euphonious.
Another Gombert work, a five-part mass setting occupied the second half.
This is a longish work, demanding considerable stamina from the singers, who appeared to flag a little
towards the end.
The top end of the tenor range was also prone to come unstuck in intonation from time to time but, carping
aside, this was one of the better choral concerts I’ve attended in quite a while.
Stephen Ingham/Courtesy of The Age

Friday 30 August 1996, The Herald Sun [Melbourne], p.84
Choir earns fair hearing
Keith Field

AUSTRALIA’S foremost choir of unaccompanied singers, Ensemble Gombert, celebrated the waning solstice
with four masterpieces.
Appropriately, all of them were based on the wintry plainchant melody, Media Vita – “In the midst of life we
are in death “.
John O’Donnell drew gleeful attention to the “crunching dissonances” in Nicholas Gombert’s mass, Missa de
Media Vita.
He applied 16th-century chromatic practices to “bend” pitches, intensifying individual lines of melody and so
clashing voice against voice.
But the proof of O’Donnell’s daring speculations was in the hearing.
Ensemble Gombert achieved compelling unity of style, precluding vibrato, theatrical surges of
loud-and-soft and the vocal effects associated with later operatic mannerisms.
Supported by easy, natural and flexible pulsing, phrases overlapped in timeless, flowing motion to create a
mood of intensely felt spiritual introspection.
Gombert’s six-part motet, Media Vita, illustrated the composer’s consummate technical mastery as well as
emphasising his innovative spirit of discovery, continually re-arranging voices to evoke novel sonorities of
remarkable individuality.
The same text found sure response in the temperament of Roland de Lassus, whose tendency towards
melancholy and genius for strong personal expression was exemplified in a six-part motet, beautifully poised
over firm bass singing.
John Sheppard, a neglected composer of Tudor England, integrated verses of “In the midst of life . . .” with
the Nunc Dimittis – “now let thy servant depart in peace “, sung at every Anglican evensong.
Sheppard’s slender and euphonious textures, performed with confident precision, highlighted the informed
and innovative scholarship which establishes Australia’s Ensemble Gombert at high levels of excellence.

Tuesday 21 May 1996, 8pm
Xavier College Chapel, Kew

Subscription series concert 2

PROGRAM

Nicolas Gombert Regina caeli laetare a 12
Nicolas Gombert O beata Maria a 5
Nicolas Gombert Magnificat octavi toni a 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 & 8
Nicolas Gombert Credo a 8
Nicolas Gombert Mort et fortune a 4
Orlande de Lassus Magnificat tertii toni a 5 super Mort et fortune
Nicolas Gombert In illo tempore a 6
Claudio Monteverdi Missa da Capella a sei voci, fatta sopra il motetto In illo tempore del Gomberti

 

SOPRANO	ALTO	TENOR	BASS
Deborah Summerbell	Katherine Wells	Phillip Legge	Adrian Phillips
Carol Veldhoven	Margaret Arnold	Andrew Green	Andrew Williams
Lisette Wesseling	Jennifer Mathers	Matthew Flood	Andrew Fysh
Fiona Seers	Lynette Richardson	Timothy O’Connor	Jerzy Kozlowski

–
REVIEWS

Thursday, 23 May 1996, The Age [Melbourne], page 17.
Second round of suave elegance
Clive O’Connell

[…] IN A TYPICALLY taut and uncompromising program, the Ensemble Gombert under John O’Donnell paid
substantial tribute to its namesake with a concert of religious music, slightly leavened by a brief Gombert
chanson, Mort et fortune. The night’s most substantial segment came with Monteverdi’s Missa da Capella for
six parts.
As usual, the ensemble impressed with its assured attack, showing an uncompromising self-confidence that
rarely failed.
In music that moved from a simple four lines to 12, these singers relentlessly forged a massive web of choral
sound; if the fabric occasionally showed some rough patches, these were soon compensated for in
tapestry-thick polyphony, the like of which is rarely heard in this city.The ensemble’s number is back to 16, the tenors at full complement once more. Versatile bass Adrian Phillips
still helps them out when the upper male voices split into two sections.
But, in spite of some changes in personnel over the last year, O’Donnell still produces a rich spread of
registers from his forces.
The Ensemble Gombert’s music is complex in construction, peppered with harmonic clashes, rigorous in its
vocal discipline – and its colors shift subtly, not sharply.
The Gomberts sing with a confidence and purity that take their listeners back 400 years to an age of
astonishing musical craft and intellectual vision.
Clive O’Connell/ Courtesy of The Age

Monday, 27 May 1996 , The Herald Sun [Melbourne], page 79.
Vocal banquet whets appetite
Keith Field

GLORIOUS, unaccompanied singing brought many of Melbourne’s choral gourmets to Xavier College
Chapel in “Hommage To Gombert “, a banquet of vocal items by the consummate Renaissance master,
Nicholas Gombert.
John O’Donnell’s Gombert Singers may well claim to be the finest a capella ensemble working in Australia.
Their 16 voices are finely matched, trained to hold pitch with pinpoint accuracy and magnificently
disciplined in precise interplay.
Four solo singers sang Gombert’s Death and Fortune, a fluent chanson which provided melodic fragments for
a five-part Magnificat by Lassus, his great Flemish compatriot.
Monteverdi chose phrases from Gombert’s six-part motet, At That Time, as basis for a Mass, written to
satisfy conservative Roman expectations.
Other Gombert compositions for combinations between two and 12 parts demonstrated his skill, keen ear for
euphony and fervent emotional expression.
O’Donnell’s championship of authentic performance practice was especially fascinating.

Tuesday, 26 March 1996
Xavier College Chapel, Barkers Rd, Kew

Subscription series concert 1

PROGRAM

Orlande de Lassus (1532-1594) Hymnus: Vexilla regis a 6
Nicolas Gombert (c.1495-c.1560) Super flumina Babylonis a 4
Josquin Desprez (c.1440-1521) Huc me sydereo descendere iussit Olympo a 5
Thomas Tallis (c.1505-1585)  Incipit lamentatio a 5
Thomas Tallis De lamentatione a 5
Carlo Gesualdo (c.1561-1613)  Responsoria: Sabbato Sancto a 6
In I. Noct.
1. Sicut ovis ad occisionem ductus est
2. Ierusalem, surge
3. Plange quasi virgo, plebs mea
In ij. Noct.
4. Recessit pastor noster, fons aquae vivae
5. O vos omnes
6. Ecce quomodo moritur iustus
In iij. Noct.
7. Astiterunt reges terrae
8. Aestimatus sum descendentibus in lacum
9. Sepulto Domino

SINGERS

Soprano Deborah Summerbell Sophie Clapperton Lisette Wesseling Fiona Seers

Alto Helena Simpson Margaret Arnold Jennifer Mathers Lynette Richardson

Tenor Timothy O’Connor Matthew Flood Peter Neustupny

Bass Adrian Phillips Grantley McDonald Andrew Fysh Jerzy Kozlowski

REVIEW
Thursday, 28 March 1996, The Age [Melbourne], page 21.
A bit too much of a very good thing
Michael Easton

A LIFE IN exile spent in the galleys on the high seas for performing unmentionable acts against one’s charges
is not the sort of thing one associates with composers of ecclesiastical music, but this is what happened,
apparently, to Nicolas Gombert from whom this ensemble gets its name.
Ensemble Gombert has received glowing reviews for its authentic performances of choral music from the
High Renaissance period.
The director, John O’Donnell, has a wide-ranging reputation for his extensive research into this music and, in
the introduction to the program, he outlines the manner of the ensemble’s performance.
Basically, he attempts to echo the practices of Hermann Finck who insisted upon an unchanging dynamic
level throughout a piece, coupled with a light soprano tone but a more dominant bass sound. The tuning, too,
differs from the “modern” compromise of equal temperament.
Historically, this is fascinating and aurally rewarding but, alas, when served in such generous portions as at
this concert the effect is diminished as the hours tick by. The music is full of dissonance, angular lines and
dense webs of counterpoint. All of this was handled well by the ensemble, which consists of 15 fine singers
who perform unaccompanied for the entire evening; no small feat. The four basses, Adrian Phillips, Grantley
McDonald, Andrew Fysh and Jerzy Kozlowki, are each very secure and blended immaculately. Much the
same may be said of the tenors, Timothy O’Connor, Matthew Flood and Peter Neustupny, although here the
sound was less coherent.
The alto voices of Helen Simpson, Margaret Arnold, Jennifer Mathers and Lynette Richardson, provide a
rhythmically secure line but with occasional and, in this music, noticeable, pitch problems – especially at
difficult entry points, but there is little to fault in the pure soprano lines of Deborah Summerbell, Sophie
Clapperton, Lisette Wesseling and Fiona Seers.
The music consisted of settings of texts relating to Passiontide and two works by Tallis, Incipit Lamentatio
and De lamentatione, proved what a great composer he was. Indeed the first half contained much beautiful
music, but the restrained manner of performance tended to create a mood of sameness.
The second half was devoted entirely to the music of one composer, Gesualdo, his settings of responses. Here
the effect of too much of the same really told and there were several audience members who, embraced by
the warmth of the music, slipped into a light sleep.
In the middle of this set of nine pieces the intonation and ensemble became ragged, but the singers, who must
have been drained by then, rallied well for the final group.

Tuesday, 19 December 1995 at 8pm
Xavier College Chapel, Kew

Subscription Concert
PROGRAM

Josquin Desprez Praeter rerum seriem
William Byrd Pro Adventu
–Rorate caeli desuper
–Atollite portas
–Ave Maria, gratia plena
–Ecce concipiet
Clemens non Papa Pastores quidnam vidistis
John Sheppard  Reges Tharis et insulae
Nicolas Gombert  Hodie beata virgo
Thomas Tallis Videte miraculum
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina O magnum mysterium
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina Missa O magnum mysterium

SOPRANO	ALTO	TENOR	BASS
Deborah Summerbell	Margaret Arnold	Timothy O’Connor	Adrian Phillips
Carol Veldhoven	Jennifer Mathers	Nicholas Tolhurst	Grantley McDonald
Lisette Wesseling	Lynette Richardson	Peter Neustupny	Jerzy Kozlowski
Fiona Seers	Helena Simpson	Andrew Green	Andrew Fysh

REVIEW

Thursday 21 December 1995, The Age [Melbourne], page 13.
Energetic end to the year
Clive O’Connell
[…] ALSO ending their performing year, John O’Donnell’s Ensemble Gombert gave another demonstration of
their scholarship and conviction in a lengthy (for this group) night’s singing, beginning with a group of nine
substantial motets for the current ecclesiastical season by Desprez, Byrd, Sheppard, Gombert, Tallis and
Clemens non Papa.
After interval, we moved into the less musically striking but more emotionally comfortable world of
Palestrina through the motet and mass O magnum mysterium.
The group’s singing, as far as I can tell, is the purest and finest achieved in musical terms on offer in
Melbourne.
In this context, even a fractional hesitation or questionable intonation at a passage’s start is apparent;
fortunately, such moments are rare in the Gomberts’ work. From the rolling warmth of the bass line, through
the attractively warm timbre of the altos, to the sopranos’ pinpoint accuracy and stellar purity, this group
gives its ever-increasing audiences considerable value for their time and money.
The Gomberts’ musical choices might not make for “easy” listening; indeed, some of this night’s works were
rigorous in their language, formally complex if harmonically bracing, like Josquin’s Praeter rerum seriem and
Gombert’s Hodie beata virgo. Even when a mellifluous composer like Palestrina appears, the chosen mass is
not an instantly attractive or popular one; rather, it requires a group of the Ensemble Gombert’s type: one of
irreproachable dependability and assurance in performance.
Clive O’Connell/Courtesy of The Age

 

Tuesday, 19 September 1995 at 8pm
Xavier College Chapel, Kew

Subscription Concert
PROGRAM

Johannes Ockeghem  Kyrie & Gloria from Missa Caput
Josquin Desprez   Nymphes des bois
Josquin Desprez Planxit autem David
Josquin Desprez Benedicta es, caelorum regina
Clemens non Papa Pater peccavi
Fremuit spiritu Jesus
Nicolas Gombert Lugebat David Absalon
Orlande de Lassus  Magnificat octavi toni

SOPRANO	ALTO	TENOR	BASS
Deborah Summerbell	Katherine Wells	Timothy O’Connor	Adrian Phillips
Carol Veldhoven	Margaret Arnold	Nicholas Tolhurst	Grantley McDonald
Lisette Wesseling	Jennifer Mathers	Peter Neustupny	Jerzy Kozlowski
Vivan Hamilton	Lynette Richardson

REVIEW
Monday, 25 September 1995, The Age [Melbourne], page 13.
Local choir of exquisite quality
Clive O’Connell

There have been some changes in the personnel of the Gombert Ensemble. The number of tenors and
basses has been reduced by one in each section, and there are some new faces in the male line-up.
Not that it makes much difference to the lowest part: with Jerzy Kozlowski, Grantley McDonald and Adrian
Phillips in full voice, you could not ask for a more solid underpinning, even when the bass line is divided into
two parts.
The ensemble’s tenors – Timothy O’Connor, Nicholas Tolhurst and Peter Neustupny – produce less volume
and, at certain passages, the texture could have coped with more centre-thickening power from this rank.
Still, the ensemble is faring better in acquiring tenors than any other local choral group I’ve heard this year.
And it still has that ravishingly clear and musically polished double-quartet of sopranos and altos.
John O’Donnell and his 14 voices presented another deftly organised program: two parts of Ockeghem’s
Missa Caput, three choral works by Josquin including the mighty Planxit autem David, a brace of motets
from Clemens non Papa, the sine-qua- non Gombert piece – Lugebat David Absalon, and a Lassus Magnificat
setting.
Is it possible to over-praise? Possibly, but this standard of singing makes you impatient with most other
choral bodies because the Gomberts work so well together and have so much going for them. Even though
their chosen field of expertise is a specific one – there is no leaping across the centuries but a steady
exploration of the vein of Renaissance choral music, with the accent on the Northern schools – they sing with
a rock-hard infallibility that turns harmonic clashes into drama, not just a piquant spicing-up of the texture.
And for all its formal complexity, this music is deeply moving. Perhaps its effect comes down to the singers’
confidence and responsiveness, coupled with their director’s scholarship.
It might also be a case of the performances being given in a building made for a cappella singing; the Xavier
Chapel certainly adds lustre to any voice and is particularly kind to thorough musicians.
Whatever the cause, there have been few more absorbing samples of live choral work in my experience than
the Gomberts’ reading of Josquin’s Planxit. For sheer purity of intonation and fluidity of texture, this was a
memorable performance. When put alongside a composition of this inspired craft and expressive sincerity,
Allegri’s Miserere sounds trite and sentimental.
I’ve said it before but it is worth repeating: the Gombert Ensemble concerts are marvellous events that should
not be missed by anyone who is interested in hearing top-notch singing.
Even the most highly publicised visitors rarely produce music- making of this calibre.
Clive O’Connell/Courtesy of The Age

Tuesday 20 December 1994, 8pm
Xavier College, Barkers Road, Kew

PROGRAM
Program details taken from newspaper review (below)

Robert Fayrfax Magnificat
Walter Lambe Nesciens Mater
Jean Mouton Nesciens Mater
Andreas de Silva Puer natus est nobis
Nicolas Gombert O magnum mysterium
William Byrd Senex puerum
William Byrd Hodie beata Virgo
Jacob Handl Omnes de Saba venient
G.P. da Palestrina Hodie Christus natus est
G.P. da Palestrina Missa Hodie Christus natus est

SINGERS

SOPRANO	ALTO	TENOR	BASS
Deborah Summerbell	Katherine Wells	Grantley McDonald	Andrew Fysh
Carol Veldhoven	Margaret Arnold	Calvin Bowman	Adrian Phillips
Vivian Hamilton	Jennifer Mathers	Siro Battaglin	Jerzy Kozlowski
Deborah Kayser	Lynette Richardson	Nicholas Tolhurst	Richard Nicholls

REVIEW

Friday 23 December 1994, The Age [Melbourne], p.13
New ensemble simply superb
Clive O’Connell

THIS GROUP of 16 singers is a fairly recent addition to the set of choirs that give public concerts, such as
the Melbourne Chorale, the Astra Society, the Tudor Choristers, and the Ormond College Choir.
They have taken their name from a Flemish Renaissance composer whose stature has been overshadowed by
his contemporaries and followers Palestrina, Tallis, Lassus and Byrd. Nevertheless, certain commentators
rank Gombert very highly for his church music’s mysticism and the fluency of his secular chansons.
The ensemble is, in a word, superb. This quality of music-making is so fine that you could kick yourself for
missing the Gombert’s previous concerts.
There are, I think, two factors of some weight that give them an edge over other choral bodies that attempt
similar works: the quality of each member, and the distinction of their director.
The soprano line, for example, boasts Deborah Summerbell, Vivien Hamilton and Deborah Kayser; Margaret
Arnold and Jennifer Mathers are two of the altos; two of the city’s finest young musical talents Calvin
Bowman and Siro Battaglin can be heard in
the tenor quartet; and the powerful bass section has Adrian Phillips and Jerzy Kozlowski.
In fact, most of the faces in the Ensemble Gombert are familiar from other choirs. So they have a great deal
of experience between them; at least half have been solo singers. More to the point, each is a thorough
musician, which is just as well because there is clearly no room in this group for passengers, particularly
when they produced a program like Tuesday’s, where the major work was Palestrina’s eight- part Missa Hodie
Christus natus est.
John O’Donnell has had ups and downs as a choral conductor, but this set of singers must give him great
satisfaction. Their phrasing is finely polished; their realisation of massive block chords thrills with its
controlled power; and as far as I could judge, their pitch did not falter. In the concert’s first half, it was hard to
find a flaw as they moved from Fayrfax’s Magnificat Regale and two settings of Nesciens Mater, through
Gombert’s rich and euphonious O magnum mysterium, to the more familiar reaches of a pair of Byrd motets
and the near-Baroque splendour of Handel’s Omnes de Sabe venient.
It seems as if the director and his singers are making a speciality of Renaissance choral music, and the more
polyphonically complex, the better. There appears to be no other choir occupied in this field; not surprising,
because this night’s work would scare off any competition.
The Ensemble Gombert, most fortunate in its talented personnel, is an outstanding body that demonstrates
one of the most rewarding facets to music of any type: how gifted individuals work together to achieve
gratifyingly high standards.
Clive O’Connell/Courtesy of The Age