Friday, 3 September 1999, 8 pm
Sacred Heart Church, Grey St, St Kilda
Melbourne Early Music Festival
PROGRAM
Johann Sebastian Bach Brandenburg Concerto No 5
Johann Sebastian Bach Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen (Cantata 51)
Johann Sebastian Bach Fürchte dich nicht
Heinrich Schütz Musicalische Exequien
SINGERS
| Soprano Deborah Summerbell Carol Veldhoven Margaret Pearce Claerwen Jones Maria Pisani Helen Gagliano |
Alto Jennifer George Margaret Arnold Jennifer Mathers Barbara Tattam |
Tenor Peter Campbell Vaughan McAlley Peter Neustupny Stuart Tennant |
Bass Jerzy Kozlowski Andrew Fysh Philip Nicholls Thomas Drent |
Margaret Pearce – soprano
Concentus Australis
John O’Donnell – conductor
REVIEW
Monday, 6 September 1999, The Age [Melbourne], page 5.
An interesting sample of early music
Clive O’Connell
This three-day festival, which has made its home at one of the more spacious St Kilda churches, began
effectively enough with a solid program of “late” early music, although there were slight traces of some
shortcomings that became more noticeable during the second day.
The music began with J.S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D.
With a quartet of strings for an orchestra, this minimalist version featured two soloists who are familiar
figures on the local scene: flautist Greg Dikmans and harpsichordist John O’Donnell. Both have been heard
several times in this work, and their reading remains rapid-fire, unsentimental and bracing.
The violin line was played by Cynthia O’Brien, home from Austria to lead her own Capella Corelli and, in
this case, to lend a lucid authority to this signature-work of the Baroque. O’Brien’s finely spun but assertive
sound made a highly appropriate foil for Dikmans’ calm, full-bodied flute, even if the whole work is
dominated by the virtuosic keyboard writing.
The church is an impressive building, with plenty of air to fill with sound and suited to choral music in
particular. With the Bach concerto, the acoustic impact was faint; sitting half-way up the church, you seemed
to be a long way aurally from the performers.
The Ensemble Gombert made a more telling impact with Bach’s Furchte dich nicht motet and the
Musicalische Exequien by Schutz. Even though the choral texture tended to be bottom-heavy in this building,
a clean attack and confidence bore witness to the singers’ skill and O’Donnell’s directorial vigilance.
On Saturday, students from the Early Music Studio at Melbourne University worked gainfully through works
by Machaut, Schein, Schutz and Monteverdi. The Early Voices Ensemble of about 10 sang with zest in
various combinations, suffering from an over-assertive tenor line.
These young musicians made a fair contribution to the festival, if one that was rough around the edges.
At the centre of the festival is an evening Mass, involving a complete setting of the proper and common for
voices and/or instruments. This year, the historical reference point was 15th-century Florence; members of
Les Six sang Dufay’s Ecce ancilla Dei setting to the accompaniment of Fonte Musicale’s sackbutts.
Musicologist John Stinson’s preparatory lecture on Florentine musical practice and personalities of the time
whetted one’s appetite, but the reality made for uneasy listening. This sample of this field of music-making
left me mildly grateful but not enthusiastic about the general standard of performance.