Programme | Further Information | Review
Reconstructed from the review below, a tape recording of the concert, and Michael Sawer's notes in the SCUNA Concert Register
| Trad. | Gaudeamus | ||
| 1. | Two 16th century Motets: Tomás Luis de Victoria (1548? - 1611) William Byrd (c.1539 - 1623) |
O vos omnes Haec dies |
|
| 2. | Richard Rodney Bennett (1936 -) | Verses | Chamber Choir |
| 3. | Russell Woollen (1923 - 1994) |
Sonatina for Recorder Trio (1960) | Treble 1: Matthew Wilkie Treble 2: Sue Flannery Tenor: Michael Sawer |
| 4. | Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643) | Beatus Vir | |
| [Interval] | |||
| 5. | Bohuslav Martinu (1890-1959) | Vier Madrigalen nach Mährischen Volksliedern | Chamber Choir |
| 6. | Zoltán Kodály (1882 - 1967) |
Missa Brevis | Organ: Tom Healey Violins: Barbara Gilby Richard Wright Bassoon: Matthew Wilkie |
20 sopranos including Fran Dixon, Kathy Warth, Rosemary Richards,Adrienne Ross, Elspeth Young
15 altos including John Collis, Helen McCullagh, Sue Flannery
6 tenors including Richard Dixon, Phil Thomas
15 basses including Rik Allen, George Garnsey, Roger Lee, Matthew Wilkie, Marcel Werps, Michael Sawer (in Beatus Vir)
56 total
Concert manager: Mark Hyman
Tickets: $1.80, 0.90c
Source: Michael Sawer's notes in the SCUNA Concert Register. He mentions a one-page handout at the concert (not a programme - doesn't list pieces performed), a handbill, and a programme. None of these appear to be in the SCUNA Archives.
A capacity audience filled the Great Hall of University House last night to hear the ANU Choral Society give one of its best concerts for quite some time.
In a program which interestingly contrasted some fine 20th-century choral music with three splendid examples of late-16th- and early-17th-century sacred music, the singing was consistently good, while the works themselves were presented with due regard to the variety of styles they offered.
The Missa Brevis, by Zoltan Kodaly, was the major work of the program and, under the firm direction of Brian Hingerty and with excellent support from Tom Healey on the organ, it was given a telling and often quite arresting performance. Written in 1944 during the closing stages of the war in Europe, and directly influenced by those events, it is a tightly constructed and passionately expressive cry for peace. The Dona nobis pacem section of the Agnus Dei is given great prominence, and the work concludes with impassioned repetition of the words 'da pacem' (give peace).
The quieter sections too were nicely controlled, and only at the end of the Credo was there any real uncertainty, with voices and organ moving disjunctively to the final cadence. But these few momentary discrepancies in no way blemished a fine performance of one of the major choral masterpieces of 20th century music.
The full choir, now 50 voices strong, was also heard in the lovely Beatus Vir by Monteverdi, a six-part chorus set against two violins "obbligato" with organ and continuo, and two 16th century motets by Vittoria and Byrd. Between these early works the Chamber group interspersed two further examples of 20th century writing, a setting of Three Verses from John Donne's Litanie by the English composer Richard Rodney Bennett, and Four Madrigals by the Czech Bohuslav Martinu.
It was good to hear an example of contemporary English choral music so competently sung, even if the Martinu is probably a little less demanding to sing and probably more immediately attractive with its folk-song feeling, particularly the delightful third madrigal with its solo voice set against a quiet harmonic background.
A Sonatina for Recorder Trio by a contemporary US composer, Russell Woollen, and pleasantly played by Michael Sawer, Sue Flannery and Matthew Wilkie, added the final touch of variety to this very interesting program.
- from a clipping of W.L. Hoffman's Music column in the Canberra Times