Italianissimo: April 2011

AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER CHOIR
directed by
DOUGLAS LAWRENCE
with organist
Robin Batterham
Our Lady of Mt Carmel, Middle Park
Sunday 3 April 2011 at 3 pm
1.
Missa Papae Marcelli
Palestrina
GIOVANNI PIERLUIGI DA PALESTRINA : Born Palestrina(?) c.1525; died Rome, 1594.
The story that Palestrina became the ‘saviour of polyphony’ at the Council of Trent,
with this particular Mass in honour of Pope Marcellus II (who reigned for only three weeks
in 1555), is just that: a story, albeit one with rich dramatic potential – like Shakespeare’s
even more unhistorical caricature of Richard III – and one that became the basis for a
profoundly moving opera, Palestrina, by the late-Romantic German composer Hans
Pfitzner. It is perfectly true that several leading cardinals knew Palestrina, and that his
piece fulfilled the Council’s demand for the intelligibility in performance of church music’s
words. Yet the idea that the Missa Papae Marcelli changed the Council’s collective mind,
and had been written specifically for the Council, arose in an 1828 biography by an Italian
priest named Giuseppe Baini. Nobody knows, in fact, when Palestrina committed this Mass
setting to paper. It appeared in print in 1567, four years after the Council came to a close;
but it might already have been a dozen years old. Publication dates with Palestrina bore no
relationship to dates of composition. Melodically the opening passage resembles the
extremely popular Renaissance song L’Homme Armé. Still, in the music’s overall
combination of serenity with technical cunning, it is the quintessence of its composer’s art.
From this performance, the Credo movement has been omitted, as is often done now when
the work is performed in a liturgical context.
Kyrie eleison.
Christe eleison.
Kyrie eleison.
Lord, have mercy upon us. Christ, have mercy upon us. Lord, have mercy upon us.
Gloria in excelsis Deo,
et in terra pax, hominibus bonae voluntatis.
Laudamus te, benedicimus te,
adoramus te, glorificamus te.
Gratias agimus tibi
propter magnam gloriam tuam.
Domine Deus, Rex caelestis,
Deus Pater omnipotens.
Domine Fili unigenite Jesu Christe.
Domine Deus, Agnus Dei, Filius Patris.
Qui tollis peccata mundi,
miserere nobis;
Qui tollis peccata mundi,
suscipe deprecationem nostram.
Qui sedes ad dexteram Patris,
miserere nobis.
Quoniam tu solus sanctus,
tu solus Dominus,
tu solus altissimus,
Jesu Christe.
Cum Sancto Spiritu,
In Gloria Dei Patris. Amen.
Glory to God on high,
and on earth peace to men of good will.
We praise Thee, we bless Thee.
We adore Thee, we glorify Thee.
We give thanks to Thee
for Thy great glory.
Lord God, heavenly King,
God the Father Almighty,
Lord, the only begotten Son, Jesus Christ,
Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father.
That takest away the sins of the world,
have mercy on us;
That takest away the sins of the world,
receive our prayer.
That sittest at the right hand of the Father,
have mercy upon us.
For Thou alone art holy,
Thou alone art the Lord,
Thou alone art the Most High,
Jesus Christ.
With the Holy Spirit,
in the Glory of God the Father. Amen.
Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus,
Dominus Deus Sabaoth,
Pleni sunt caeli et terra gloria tua.
Hosanna in excelsis.
Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini.
Hosanna in excelsis.
Holy, Holy, Holy,
Lord God of Hosts,
Heaven and earth are full of Thy glory.
Hosanna in the highest.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest.
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis. Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world, have
mercy on us.
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis. Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world, have
mercy on us.
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, dona nobis pacem.
Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world, grant
us peace.
2.
O vos omnes
Gesualdo
CARLO GESUALDO : Born Venosa(?) c.1560; died Avellino September 8, 1613.
A nephew of Saint Carlo Borromeo, that highly influential figure during the Council
of Trent (see above under Palestrina), Carlo Gesualdo, Prince of Venosa, is among the few
multiple murderers known to musical history. He matched the no-holds-barred drama of
his private doings – he slew his first wife, her lover, and possibly her father also – with the
white-hot intensity of his compositional style, which often surpassed even Monteverdi’s in
its chromatic boldness. O Vos Omnes comes from a collection of motets (based on the
Lamentations of Jeremiah) that Gesualdo published in 1611, by which time he had sunk
into despair punctuated by sanguinary masochism. The object – at his own insistence – of
daily whippings by his servants, he apparently wanted to imitate the physical as well as the
mental sufferings of Christ’s Passion. Musically the result is what might be expected from
such anguish: utterly unpredictable, and (as has many times been said about Gesualdo’s
idiom, not least by Stravinsky and Aldous Huxley) redolent more of twentieth-century
harmonic progressions than of Gesualdo’s own age. Two years after the printing of this
music, its composer was dead; some authorities attribute his death to his second wife’s preemptive handiwork.
O vos omnes, qui transitis per viam,
attendite, et videte, si est dolor sicut dolor meus:
quoniam vindemiavit me,
ut locutus est dominus in die irae furoris sui.
3.
All ye that pass by,
behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my
sorrow,
which is done unto me,
wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of
His fierce anger.
Exultate Justi
Viadana
LUDOVICO GROSSI DA VIADANA : Born Viadana c.1560; died Gualtieri, 2 May 1627
Viadana (a Franciscan friar) was not actually the earliest composer to use the
figured-bass method of writing. There had been a few previous examples of that technique.
He was, nevertheless, the first composer to proselytise on behalf of it, in an anthology of his
own sacred pieces that he issued in 1602. (These pieces he called concerti; this appears to be
the first known use of the word ‘concerto’ in a musical context.) To a certain extent,
Viadana demonstrated the influence of his much-better known contemporary Giovanni
Gabrieli, in a tendency to pit vocal groups against one another. But there is no evidence that
he and Gabrieli ever met. The writing in Exultate Justi is almost entirely chordal, even the
passages of imitation among voices being bold and declamatory rather than refined and
elaborate. At the beginning and at the end, the music is in triple time and of terpsichorean
character.
Exsultate justi in Domino; rectos decet collaudatio.
Confitemini Domino in cithara;
in psalterio decem chordarum psallite illi.
Cantate ei canticum novum;
bene psallite ei in vociferatione.
Rejoice in the Lord, O ye just; praise befits the
upright.
Give praise to the Lord on the harp;
sing to Him with the psaltery, the instrument of ten
strings.
Sing to Him a new song,
sing well to Him and with a loud noise.
INTERVAL
A CD of the ACC live in Europe, recorded during our 2009 European tour is available
today ($15).
Swap your Italianissimo ticket for a Special Season Ticket to our 2011 Concert Series
today by paying an additional $30 (adults) $25 (Seniors) $20 (students, pensioners and
unemployed). Subscribers are invited to a reception in the church hall after each concert.
See the 2011 brochure for concert details. Just ask our ticket desk personnel.
4.
Crucifixus
Lotti
ANTONIO LOTTI : Born Venice, c.1667; died Venice, 5 January, 1740.
This is far and away the most regularly performed work by a composer employed at
St Mark’s Basilica, Venice – Monteverdi’s and Giovanni Gabrieli’s old stamping-ground –
over more than five decades (for his last four years he served as choirmaster there). Written
without instrumental accompaniment, it is sober and old-fashioned in tone, looking back to
the heritage of Palestrina rather than forward to fellow-Venetians such as Vivaldi and
Albinoni. Bach and Handel both admired Lotti’s sacred output and owned copies of some
of it.
Crucifixus etiam pro nobis sub Pontio Pilato:
passus et sepultus est.
5.
Avvento a Milano
[He was] crucified for us under Pontius Pilate,
suffered, and was buried.
Willcock
CHRISTOPHER WILLCOCK : Born Sydney, 1947.
Christopher Willcock has been a Jesuit priest since 1977. A former pupil of Peter
Sculthorpe, he graduated in 1974 from the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music in
Sydney, after which he moved to France and obtained his doctorate at the Institut
Catholique de Paris. His works include Akhmatova Requiem, to words by the Soviet
dissident poet; three settings, for a cappella choir, of poems by Australia’s own John Shaw
Neilson; Plaint over Dili, for the remarkable combination of oboe and harpsichord; and
Gospel Bestiary, another a cappella work commissioned by Britain’s world-famous Tallis
Scholars. Avvento in Milano (‘Advent in Milan’) is a series of six organ pieces, all written in
2006, and all inspired by Advent texts which are part of the Milan-based Ambrosian Rite.
Today we will be hearing the first, third, and fifth of these pieces: ‘Signs of the Times’, ‘Be
Watchful’, and ‘Spirit and Fire.’
6.
Messa di Requiem
Pizzetti
ILDEBRANDO PIZZETTI : Born Parma, 20 September, 1880. Died Rome, 13 February, 1968.
Pizzetti, largely forgotten in our time – if only because of his impassioned adherence
to Mussolini’s dictatorship – ranked for many years among the most revered of Italian
composers, as honoured in reference works as was his more popular colleague Ottorino
Respighi, whom he succeeded as director of Rome’s Santa Cecilia Academy. Unlike
Respighi, who remains best known for his orchestral productions, Pizzetti concentrated on
opera (his Assassinio nella Cattedrale is based on T. S. Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral), on
incidental music (much of it designed to accompany plays by his friend Gabriele
D’Annunzio), and on choral music. Notable in the last-named category is this Requiem
Mass, begun in 1922 and finished in 1923 but never sung in public, apparently, till the early
1970s. Pizzetti shared with Respighi a deep love of Gregorian chant, the melodic contours
of which can be detected in this composition.
Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine,
et lux perpetua luceat eis.
Te decet hymnus, Deus in Sion,
et tibi reddetur votum in Ierusalem.
Exaudi orationem meam:
ad te omnis caro veniet.
Grant them eternal rest, Lord,
and let perpetual light shine upon them.
A hymn is fitting for You, God in Zion,
and a vow will be paid to You in Jerusalem.
Hear my prayer:
to You all flesh will come.
Kyrie eleison.
Christe eleison.
Kyrie eleison.
Lord, have mercy upon us.
Christ, have mercy upon us.
Lord, have mercy upon us.
Dies irae, dies illa,
Solvet saeclum in favilla:
Teste David cum Sibylla.
Quantus tremor est futurus,
Quando iudex est venturus,
Cuncta stricte discussurus!
Tuba mirum spargens sonum
Per sepulcra regionum,
Coget omnes ante thronum.
Mors stupebit et natura,
Cum resurget creatura,
Iudicanti responsura.
Liber scriptus proferetur,
In quo totum continetur,
Unde mundus iudicetur.
Iudex ergo cum sedebit
Quidquid latet apparebit:
Nil inultum remanebit.
Quid sum miser tunc dicturus?
Quem patronum rogaturus?
Cum vix iustus sit securus.
Rex tremendae maiestatis,
Qui salvandos salvas gratis,
Salva me, fons pietatis.
Recordare, Iesu pie,
Quod sum causa tuae viae:
Ne me perdas illa die.
Quaerens me, sedisti lassus:
Redemisti crucem passus:
Tantus labor non sit cassus.
Iuste iudex ultionis,
Donum fac remissionis
Ante diem rationis.
Ingemisco tamquam reus:
Culpa rubet vultus meus:
Supplicanti parce, Deus.
Qui Mariam absolvisti,
Et latronem exaudisti,
Mihi quoque spem dedisti.
Preces meae non sunt dignae:
Sed tu bonus fac benigne,
Ne perenni cremer igne.
Inter oves locum praesta,
Et ab haedis me sequestra,
Day of wrath, that day
will dissolve the earth in ashes:
as David and the Sibyl bear witness.
What dread there will be
when the Judge will come
to judge all things strictly.
A trumpet, spreading a wondrous sound
through the graves of all lands,
will drive mankind before the throne.
Death and Nature will be astonished
when all creation rises again
to answer to the Judge.
An inscribed book will be brought out
in which all is contained,
out of which the world is to be judged.
When therefore the Judge takes His seat,
whatever is hidden will reveal itself:
nothing will remain unavenged.
What will I say then, wretch that I am?
What advocate will I entreat to speak for me?
When even the righteous may hardly be secure.
King of amazing majesty,
You Who graciously save those needing salvation,
save me, source of holiness.
Remember, holy Jesus,
that I am the cause of Your pilgrimage.
Do not forsake me on that day.
Seeking me You sat down, weary,
You redeemed me, suffering the Cross:
let not such toil be in vain.
Just and avenging Judge,
grant remission
before the day of reckoning.
I groan like a guilty man,
my face reddens with guilt:
spare a suppliant, God.
You who absolved Mary [Magdalene]
and gave the thief a hearing,
to me also You have given hope.
My prayers are not worthy:
but You, Who are good, mercifully grant
that I not burn in everlasting fire.
Offer a place among Your sheep
and separate me from the goats,
7.
Statuens in parte dextra.
Confutatis maledictis,
Flammis acribus addictis,
Voca me cum benedictis.
Oro, supplex et acclinis,
Cor contritum quasi cinis:
Gere curam mei finis.
Lacrymosa dies illa,
Qua resurget ex favilla
Iudicandus homo reus.
Huic ergo parce, Deus,
Pie Iesu Domine,
sitting me at Your right hand.
When the accursed have been confounded
And given over to the bitter flames,
Call me together with the blessed.
I beg, a suppliant and bowed down,
my heart crumbling as if made of ashes:
take care of my end.
Mournful is that day
When from the dust shall rise
the guilty man to be judged.
Therefore spare this man, God,
Holy Lord Jesus,
Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus
Domine Deus
Domine Deus Sabaoth
Pleni sunt caeli et terra Gloria tua
Hosanna in excelsis
Benedictus qui venit in nominee Domini
Hosanna in excelsis
Holy, Holy, Holy,
Lord God of Hosts,
Lord God of Hosts
Heaven and earth are full of Thy glory.
Hosanna in the highest.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest.
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi,
dona eis requiem.
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi,
dona eis requiem aeternam.
Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world, grant
grant them rest.
Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the
world, grant them eternal rest.
Libera me, Domine, de morte aeterna,
in die illa tremenda:
Quando caeli movendi sunt et terra
Dum veneris iudicare saeculum per ignem.
Tremens factus sum ego et timeo.
Dies illa, dies irae, calamitatis et miseriae,
dies magna et amare valde.
Dum veneris iudicare saeculum per ignem.
Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine,
et lux perpetua luceat eis.
Free me, Lord, from eternal death,
on that terrifying day:
when the heaven and the earth shall be moved,
when You will come to judge the world by fire.
I am made to tremble and am afraid.
That day, a day of anger, of calamity and of misery,
a great day, and one truly bitter.
When You will come to judge the world by fire.
Grant them eternal rest, Lord,
and let perpetual light shine upon them.
De profundis clamavi ad te, Domine;
Domine, exaudi vocem meam.
Fiant aures tuae intendentes
in orationem servi tui, Domine.
Si iniquitates observaveris, Domine:
Domine, quis sustinebit?
Quia apud te propitiatio est,
et propter legem tuam sustinui te, Domine.
Out of the depths have I called to You, Lord;
Lord, hear my voice.
May Your ears be attentive
to the prayer of Your servant, Lord.
If You should notice transgressions, Lord:
Lord, who will bear it?
For with You there is mercy,
and in accordance with Your law I uphold You, Lord.
Vedi l’Aurora
Lassus
ROLAND DE LASSUS (ORLANDO DI LASSO): Born Mons (now in Belgium) c.1532. Died Munich,
14 June, 1594
Cosmopolitan by temperament, Catholic by religion (he became a papal knight), and
almost unbelievably prolific even according to sixteenth-century criteria, Roland de Lassus
– alias Orlando di Lasso – produced more than 2,000 vocal compositions, including 60 Mass
settings, 150 secular songs in French, 175 secular songs in Italian, 90 secular songs in
German, and an astonishing 530-odd motets. (He left not a single purely instrumental
creation.) Vedi l’aurora is a madrigal, of considerable contrapuntal artifice, to words written
two hundred years earlier by Petrarch and found in Part II of his long poem The Triumph of
Death.
Vedi l’Aurora de l’aurato letto
rimenar ai mortali
il giorno,
e’l sole g ià fuor de l’oceano infin al petto.
Questa vien per partirne, onde mi dole.
S’a dir hai altro, studia d’esser breve,
e col tempo
dispensa le parole.
8.
See how Aurora from her golden bed returns the day
to mortals;
and the sun is already raising its breast above the
ocean. She [the dawn] comes to part us, hence my grief. If you have more to say, try to be brief and fit your
words to accord with the time.
Matona mia cara
Lassus
Probably Lassus’s most often performed piece today is this one, the narrator of
which is a German soldier (Landsknecht or, in Italian, lanze) of dubious linguistic skills,
desperate to press his – presumably unwelcome – attentions and heavy foreign accent upon
the lady of the title (‘matona’ is a corruption of ‘madonna’). No doubt the polyglot Lassus
had fun notating the niceties of the protagonist’s mispronunciation. The text even contains
a passing reference to Petrarch, whose refined and classics-saturated literary eloquence is
beyond the soldier’s ken. Matona mia cara exemplifies the genre of the villanella, this being a
much more light-hearted and straightforward type of vocal music than the comparatively
passionate and serious madrigal.
Matona mia cara, mi follere canzon
cantar sotto finestra,
Lanze bon compagnon.
Don don don diridiridon don don don.
My dear Madonna, I want to sing a song
below your window,
I’m a Landsknecht and good company.
Don don don diridiridon don don don.
Ti prego m'ascoltare che mi cantar de bon
e mi ti foller bene come greco e capon.
Don don don ...
I pray you, listen to me, because I sing of good
things,
And I fancy you as much as Greek wine and capon.
Don don don ...
Com'andar alle cazze, cazzar con le falcon,
mi ti portar beccazze, grasse come rognon
Don don don ...
When I go hunting, hunting with my falcon,
I’ll bring you back woodcocks, as fat as kidneys.
Don don don ...
Se mi non saper dire tante belle rason
Petrarca mi non saper,
ne fonte d'Helicon.
If I don’t know how to dazzle you with fine words,
It’s because I don’t know Petrarch,
nor the springs of Helicon.
Don don don ...
Don don don ...
Se ti mi foller bene mi non esser poltron;
mi ficcar tutta notte, urtar come monton
Don don don ...
But if I make love to you I won’t be a coward,
I’ll be at it all night long, battering like a ram.
Don don don ...
Programme notes © R. J. Stove, 2011
The singers today were:
Sopranos: Taya Annable, Felicity Bolitho, Cailin Howarth, Bronwyn Jones, Kim Tan, Ailsa
Webb
Altos: Elizabeth Anderson, Zoe Gannon, Myfanwy McIndoe, Helen Seymour
Tenors: Robin Czuchnowski, Thomas Dalton, Jacob Lawrence, Justin McDonnell
Basses: Rhys Boak, Simon Gannon, Tom Healey, Andrew Moffat
The AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER CHOIR was founded by its director, Douglas Lawrence in
2007. In July that year, the choir undertook a 20-concert tour of Europe to great acclaim:
"There are days when something of heaven seems to touch the earth. Thank you for giving
us just one of those such days" (Stefen Wegener, Presenter, Kaiser-WilhelmGedächtnisskirche Series, Berlin, July 14, 2007) "The Australian Chamber Choir inspired the
audience with the finest choral music" (Ostfriesischer Kurier, July 19, 2007). Shortly after its
return to Melbourne, Clive O'Connell described the choir's inaugural Australian
performance in The Age: ‘choral work of the top rank, as lucidly articulated as you could
desire, the bustling interweaving of eight lines coming across in this revealing acoustic with
impressive purpose and intonational fidelity’ (November 22, 2007).
This meteoric rise to international success was largely due to the 24 years Douglas
Lawrence worked as director of the Choir of Ormond College, University of Melbourne. In
1984, when Lawrence founded the Ormond College choir, it was the only university choir
giving regular weekly performances. This choir provided a training ground for elite choral
singers, and its talented young graduates went on to become the backbone of other wellknown choirs. Lawrence undertook 11 international concert tours with the Ormond College
choir and established a list of European engagements unmatched by any other Australian
ensemble.
The AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER CHOIR performs music from all periods, with special
attention given to new Australian works. In its short life, with 35 European concerts to its
credit, the choir has received accolades for its performances of Australian works from
European critics: ‘The modern works; Lamentations (Hodgson) and O Magnum Mysterium
(Kristof) … all portrayed a highly-effective sonic magic’ (General Anzeiger, Bonn, July 11,
2009) ‘Thanks to the expressiveness of the singing, Brenton Broadstock's I had a dream
became a most beautiful experience’ (Berlingste Tidende, Copenhagen, July 23, 2007).
In addition to the concerts mentioned above, the ACC has produced a CD (available today)
and made five recordings for ABC classic FM.
In May 2010, the ACC gave its first regional tour, to Wangaratta, Shepparton and
Castlemaine. The response from local choirs was powerfully positive: John Rivers, the
Director of Music at Wangaratta Cathedral said ‘This fine concert not only gave an
enthusiastic audience a wonderful musical experience, but also gave impetus to choral
music in the area … We look forward with keen anticipation to a further visit from this
formidable ensemble’. The choir plans return visits to all these regional centres and aims to
expand this important work in regional Victoria in the near future. Later this year, the choir
will tour to Albury, Wagga Wagga and Canberra.
As part of its third European tour in July this year, the ACC will give a concert and sing for
a service in St Thomaskirche, Leipzig, where Bach was director of music for 27 years. It will
also perform in Kaiser-Wilhelm Gedächtnisskirche, Berlin; Hamburg Hafencity; Bonn
Minster, Cologne Cathedral, Freiberg Cathedral, Ribe Cathedral, Denmark; Holy Trinity
Cathedral, Paris and in several other centres.
Following on from its concerts in Wangaratta, Shepparton, Castlemaine, Hamilton, Albury,
Wagga Wagga and Canberra, the choir aims to establish an Australia-wide touring
program as soon as the necessary funds are available. We welcome your support.
Donations to the Australian Chamber Choir Support Fund are fully tax deductible. If you
would like to assist the choir, fill in the form provided in the Friends Program brochure or
contact us at [email protected] or telephone 9387 3004.
Thank you
for attending today’s concert.
We would like to thank the following people for their financial support:
Diamond Donor: Mr Bob Henderson
Silver Donors, Hector Maclean, Thorry Gunnersen, Glen Witham, Rowan McIndoe,
Mobiquity, Merrilyn Murnane, Max Griffiths, Alana Mitchell, Robin Batterham, Elisabeth
Murdoch, George and Ann Littlewood
Donors: Nola Rogers, David Beauchamp, Lyn Howden, Mel Waters, Peter and Sarah
Martin, Heather Low, Warren and Iris Anderson, James Barber, Anne Gilby, Helen
Bayston, John and Cheryl Iser, Rod and Deborah Edwards, Vicky and Peter Balabanki,
Wallace and Jenny Young, Lenore Stephens, the late Alf Miller and Philippa Miller, Eric
Stokes, Barbara Kristof, David Brand, MJ and RM Norton, Alma Ryrie-Jones, Carolyn
Williams, Heather and Ian Gunn, Elizabeth Burns, Dianne and David Gome, Annette
Robinson, Barry and Kate Michael
We would like to thank all our sponsors, particularly Counterpoint Wines, Emma and
Tom’s fruit juices, The Ian Potter Foundation and Coremind IT consulting.
Chairman: Dr Robin Batterham, AO
Patrons:
Dr Barry Jones, AO
Prof John Griffiths, Oficial de la Orden de Isabel la Católica
Australian Chamber Choir Inc. No.A0049983Y