Concert Details

Out of the Depths Sunday April 1 2007, 5:00PM
Verbrugghen Hall, Sydney Conservatorium of Music

Out of the darkness and terror of the Second World War came Kodály’s vibrant, life-affirming Missa Brevis. Arvo Pärt’s De Profundis, written in the shadow of communist oppression in the Soviet Union, traces a journey from despair to transcendent joy. Pizzetti’s setting of the mass for the dead draws on the ancient traditions of plainsong to weave a profoundly moving and ultimately uplifting musical experience.

Artists

  • David Drury – organ
  • Alison Pratt – percussion
  • Paul Stanhope – conductor

Program

  • ARVO PÄRT De Profundis
  • ILDEBRANDO PIZZETTI Requiem
  • ZOLTÁN KODÁLY Missa Brevis

Review

Attention to Detail
Fred Blanks, North Shore Times, April 13th 2007

Exclusively pious was the top-notch concert by the 28-voice Sydney Chamber Choir, conducted with committed attention to detail by Paul Stanhope.

The program began with minimalist tintinnabulism – that’s quite a mouthful, meaning repetitive use of few notes in a way that suggests the silence-surrounded sound of small bells – professed in his early music by prominent Estonian composer Arvo Paert, here beautifully represented by De Profundis (1980), and ended with Kodaly’s wartime Missa Brevis, which applies mild dissonance and organ partnership (supplied well by David Drury) impressively to a standard text.

Between these works came, best of all, the Requiem (1923) by Italian composer Pizzetti, a tunefully enchanting major work which, despite prominently featuring a Dies Irae (Day of Wrath) movement using the plainchant theme elaborately and polyphonically decorated, looks at heaven rather than into the grave.

Despite a few hesitant or cautious moments, this concert – insightfully annotated in the printed program by Natalie Shea – gave a devout blessing to choral music.

Chamber Choir’s afternoon of promise splendidly realised
David Gyger, Opera-Opera Magazine, May 2007

In a splendid concert entitled Out of the Depths, the Sydney Chamber Choir daringly juxtaposed four intriguingly varied musical offerings in the Verbrugghen Hall of the Sydney Conservatorium on Sunday, April 1. Three of them were explicitly religious in textual terms, while the fourth was an interlude for contemplation of sorts as organist David Drury improvised for a few minutes on the keyboard of the Verbrugghen Hall organ.

The three composers represented in this twilight concert all proved the religious depths of their creative personalities innovatively and effectively; the daring facet of the concert was to couple works by Arvo Pärt, Ildebrando Pizzetti and Zoltán Kodály into a single entity and expect to draw a respectable weekend audience.

The Verbrugghen Hall was reasonably full, and the concert itself a satisfying musical experience intensified in my case by first exposure to all of the three pieces being performed. The genesis of each of the three works was spelt out in helpful detail in the program notes of Natalie Shea, but the performances themselves were as interesting for their musical as their inspirational attributes.

First came Pärt’s De Profundis, with lush if intermittent organ accompaniment; then, after the organ improvisation of David Drury, Pizzetti’s Messa di requiem which was now and then given extra bite by percussionist Alison Pratt, with startling impact at times. After interval, we entered the world of Zoltán Kodály, whose Missa Brevis occupied the entire second half – apart from a brief encore which introduced a fourth composer, Olivier Messiaen into the mix. Kodály’s Missa Brevis proved to be well worth the trouble of a close listen. The sounds were unusual for their juxtaposition, interestingly worked out and superbly realised and co-ordinated by the SCC under the direction of Paul Stanhope. Cumulatively, this was an afternoon of considerable promise stupendously realised.

Video extract from this concert: Sanctus from the Pizzetti Requiem Choral Performance by Sydney Chamber Choir, conducted by Paul Stanhope. Video produced by Kostas Metaxas. Used with permission.

(If you are unable to view the video displayed below, you can also access it directly on YouTube here.)