“beautifully performed. It’s a cracker!”
Alan Holley reviews ‘Keys to Heaven’
Australian Chamber Choir – Douglas Lawrence, conductor
Catalogue number MCD 659
Agata della Pietà Arr: Elizabeth Anderson Ecce nunc
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina Tue es Petrus
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina Missa Aeterna Christi munera
Gregorio Allegri Miserere
Gregorio Allegri Christus resurgens
The reason this CD is of international importance is the inclusion of a work by Agata della Pietà (1712 – 1769) an Italian composer, singer, and teacher of music at the Venetian charitable institution known as the Ospedale della Pietà. She was well educated in music from early life becoming a soprano soloist as well as a fine composer. Harpsichordist, Elizabeth Anderson completed a reconstruction of Ecce nunc a 15 minute work for choir and strings in 2022 and it was first performed by the Australian Chamber Choir in Melbourne in May 2022. This fine addition to the Venetian repertoire in the late baroque appears in a beautifully performed recorded version on the Australian Chamber Choir’s Keys to Heaven CD. It’s a cracker!
Another reason to buy this CD is for the charming performances of all the works. Although this choir is renowned for performing music across the entire time span of western classical music and their presentation of new music by Australian composers is exemplary it is possible that they revel in the music of 1550 to the time of JS Bach (1685 – 1750) so it is no surprise that there is an energy and affection in the performances, some of which were recorded in concert.
Soprano Amelia Jones shines as a soloist in several of the movements and Kristina Lang and Elizabeth Anderson contribute fine solos in this premiere recording of Agata della Pietà Ecce nunc. The string players and organist assembled for this work perform with elegance.
In Gregorio Allegri’s Miserere one needs a soprano with bell-like clarity and precision to sing out in clarion style the high ‘C’s and in Elspeth Bawden the Australian Chamber Choir has a star.
Palestrina’s Tue es Petrus allows for a concerted warmth from the whole choir.
Douglas Lawrence has at his control a wonderful choir and we the listeners are the fortunate beneficiaries. This is a CD that bears repeated listening as it gives at so many levels.