Merriment and energy in Australian Chamber Choir’s Baroque Christmas

Australian Chamber Choir | Baroque Christmas 2023

Sunday, 10 December, 2023, Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Middle Park

Directed by Douglas Lawrence

Soprano: Katherine Lieschke, Kate McBride
Alto: Elizabeth Anderson, Isobel Todd
Tenor: Will Carr, Sam Rowe
Bass: Thomas Drent, Kieran Macfarlane

Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Middle Park, Melbourne, has an outstanding acoustic. The elegant and very wide nave of the priory church has a gently curved roof, and, behind the singers, behind the altar in the apse, are three enormous stained glass windows and a gently swirling depiction of Mary in the heavens painted above in muted pastels. To this picturesque backdrop, add eight of the finest singers from the Australian Chamber Choir and an experienced, world class director – our own Douglas Lawrence – and voilà, a satisfying concert ensues: Baroque Christmas, the final concert of the 2023 ACC concert series.

It’s not all baroque, but that doesn’t matter. There is such a thrill hearing familiar works such as In Dulci Jubilo, which opened the concert, at an incredibly high technical and artistic standard, with alternate verses by JS Bach and Johnann Walter, two harminisations of Josef lieber, Josef mein along with Es ist ein Ros entsprungen, by Michael Praetorius, all later in the program.

After all the merriment of the opening set there was a welcome return to substance and seriousness with two motets by Heinrich Schütz. Das Wort ward Fliesch with its wonderfully smooth counterpoint alternating with solid blocks of homophonic writing, and O süsser Jesu Christ, which was made all the sweeter by the softness of the singing. Director Douglas Lawrence really had us leaning in to lap up each breath and every last syllable. Schütz studied with Giovanni Gabrielli from St Mark’s Venice which you can really hear in his music, something also mentioned in the excellent concert program notes by musciologist Rob Stove.

At the mention of St Mark’s Venice, I have to spill the beans that the ACC have been invited to sing there during their 2024 concert tour of Europe. A real coup, according to Italian musicians who are friends of the ACC, who, by the way, have a travel program so that you tag along with the choir.

Three fun French Noëls followed the Schütz. The first was the arrangement of Ding dong merrily on high by Charles Wood (definitely not baroque) which I’ve heard many times before but never noticed the lovely ascending bass in the refrain, thank you to basses Thomas Drent and Kieran Macfarlane who brilliantly balanced the ensemble at the deep end.

This was followed by Quand Dieu naquit à Noël, which was originally a piece for organ by Louis Claude Daquin (back to the baroque) but had been arranged very effectively by Elizabeth Anderson. It included beautiful trills and ornamentation in the French baroque style, a real party piece. Angels we have heard on high, again arranged by Elizabeth Anderson in a much more flowing, elegant and musical style than I’ve heard at any carols concert, including my own!

I always love an involuntary and audible sigh of appreciation from an audience member, such as the one heard at the conclusion of the Magnificat from the Second Service by Thomas Tomkins, which ended with the doxology ‘world without end…’ obviously we did not want it to end.

The Coventry Carol (1591) is the chilling tale of the murder of infants by King Herod. Again, Douglas had us leaning in to hear the choir as they sang so softly of the unspeakable horror that unfolds in the story. The energy invested in the singing of the word ‘slay’ by the choristers (which means something very different to the young people these days, more about that later) sent a cold shiver down my spine.

There is no rose pre-dates the baroque by a couple of hundred years (c 1420) and is in a very different style to other works in the program with virtuosic and lyrical moments, handled with delicacy and artistry by Will Carr and Katherine Lieschke.

We were treated to the world premiere of two new works, The Carol of the Crows and The Carol of the Butcherbird, with text by Mark Tredinnick and music by Alan Holley. The poems come from a collection which is newly available from Five Islands Press in a lovely illustrated edition (great Xmas present) and they are complex and entertaining, great material for choral writing. Being the first time the works had been performed I wish I had the text in front of me, as there was some beautiful word painting and play with the hints of birdsong in the music. The choir sang with passion and conviction and I do hope there are plans underway for the rest of the texts to be set to music by Alan.

Sam Rowe was superb in the tenor solo of A spotless rose by Herbert Howells, with its ‘magical cadence’ at the end – again mentioned in Rob Stove’s excellent program notes. The concert concluded with JS Bach’s fun, complex and very satisfying Motet Lobet Den Herrn with its cheerful opening arpeggios; a sing along carol with a soaring descant by Kate McBride; and a bonus We wish you a Merry Christmas. As the young people say, the ACC slay. But in a good way, not a King Herod way.

This concert is available to watch on demand via ACCess, the Australian Chamber Choir’s Excellent Streaming Service:  here >>