a professional choir at the top of its gameBaroque Christmas (Australian Chamber Choir)
Sterling Place Community Centre, Dunkeld, VictoriaReviewed on 14 December, 2024
by Elizabeth Quinn on 16 December, 2024
The Australian Chamber Choir’s last musical foray for 2024 was held at the Dunkeld Community Centre, a fitting thank-you to the community of Dunkeld for its long-standing support.
The Baroque Christmas concert opened with Thomas Tonkin’s Magnificat, raising the modest timber roof with the gorgeous a cappella sound of a professional choir at the top of its game. Founding manager Elizabeth Anderson then combined an acknowledgment of country with a state-of-the-choir budget report stressing the importance of sponsorship for a choir like the ACC that pays its choristers.
It was a thought-provoking speech whose aim was to raise funds for a documentary about the choir and its role in bringing to light the music of Agatha della Pietà, one of the orphans of Venice’s Ospedale della Pietà during Vivaldi’s tenure there as music teacher. It’s a fascinating and worthy venture that deserves a wide viewership but the timing of her pitch interrupted the flow of the performance somewhat and might have been better left till the end when an appreciative audience would possibly have been more receptive.
The one hour program offered a selection of choral music from the mid-15th century until the present day, from the motets of Josquin des Prez through to Monteverdi and Bach, all the way to New Zealand-born Michael Leighton Jones’ Adam lay ybounden.
Monteverdi’s Hodie Christus Natus Est –written before the composer had turned 16 –was a three-voice polyphony well-executed by the female choristers including Elizabeth Anderson, who also led the group. It was followed by Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck’s take on the same theme, a truly joyful celebration of the birth of Christ.
An Australian contribution came in the surprising form of a Christmas carol by Henry Handel Richardson (author of The Getting of Wisdom) who wrote the music to accompany the words of the American poet Louise Imogen Guiney. Intriguingly given a French title –Triste Noël– this yuletide hybrid was a gem that more than held its own in the lofty company of the more celebrated composers. Musical director Douglas Lawrence told me after the concert that it was discovered among a pile of papers on the Lawrence/Anderson kitchen table.
This kind of detail is the sort of thing audiences want to hear, but the lack of commentary during the performance made it at times difficult for less knowledgeable audience members to keep up. A little background information between choral works makes for a richer, more inclusive experience, and would have been a welcome addition.
The program was rounded out with Bach’s uplifting Fröhlich soll mein herze springen and Martin Luther’s Vom Himmel hoch da komm ich her, both of which allowed the choir to strut its stuff. An encore of Angels we have heard on high gave the singers free rein to embellish and enhance a crowd favourite, and the audience was completely won over by the parting present of We Wish you a Merry Christmas.
As Lawrence himself acknowledged, it was more of a Renaissance Christmas than a baroque one, but an appreciative audience didn’t seem to mind.