Stately Sounds Of Venice

The Age

Monday December 17, 2007

Clive O'Connell

MUSIC REVIEW: CHRISTMAS TO CANDLEMAS

Ensemble Gombert,

Xavier Chapel,

December 15

www.ensemblegombert.com.au

VENETIAN Renaissance and Baroque composers produced an instantly recognisable church music: stately and aurally impressive, assured in utterance. We have a vivid idea of the affluence of this city from a notable group of composers, the top four featuring in the year's final concert from John O'Donnell's Ensemble Gombert.

Escorted by a string trio - two violins and a bass viol - as well as a cornett-and-sackbut quartet, this accomplished body divided itself into antiphonal choirs of seven or eight lines, even splitting into 14 parts with instrumental help for a lavish Nunc dimittis setting.

This program stayed rooted in Venice, with music by Giovanni and Andrea Gabrieli, two richly resonant motets from Giovanni Bassano, and three Monteverdi products, the concert ending with his Magnificat in a restored version by O'Donnell, who punctuated the night's vocal/instrumental action with short Intonations, ornate introductions that gave the St Marks singers their note.

Soprano Carol Veldhoven, tenor Peter Campbell and bass Tim Daly worked through some ornate solo lines with unflustered security. But the highlights were the huge blocks of sounds for intersecting forces that glorified God (and the Venetian state) with inspired jubilation.

© 2007 The Age

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