“Splendour & Mystery” Reviews, March 2023
This performance was recorded live.
Available to enjoy online via Australian Digital Concert Hall.
Reviews
classikON
The sumptuous sound of Sydney Chamber Choir
Daniel Kaan | 26 March 2023
The restrained conducting by Sam Allchurch of the Sydney Chamber Choir showed an intense musical focus which was reciprocated by the choir and instrumentalists. The SATB wind consort was made up of Renaissance instruments, a cornetto, alto, tenor and bass sacbutts and a positive organ. The program was based on repertoire from the late Renaissance/early Baroque, as well as modern compositions, all for double choirs or for a large number of vocal parts. So a sumptuous texture was the order of the day.
Limelight
Splendour and Mystery (Sydney Chamber Choir)
Steve Moffatt | 27 March 2023
Transparent and transporting, this Covid-postponed Sydney Chamber Choir showcase of sacred music was well worth the wait.
Magnificent singing from a top-notch choir.
Sydney Arts Guide
Sydney Chamber Choir with Camerata Antica: ‘Splendour & Mystery’
Paul Nolan | 27 March 2023
Warmth in concert performance is heightened by diversity. Carefully structured diversity and a programme of works which reflect similar approaches or goals between them also assists in this regard. Musical warmth also results when degrees of intensity or colour benefit from any quality collaboration with composers or other musicians.
And so it was on Saturday night as the Sydney Chamber Choir began its 2023 performance season at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music’s Verbrugghen Hall.
Sounds Like Sydney
Concert Review: Splendour and Mystery/ Sydney Chamber Choir
Shamistha de Soysa | 27 March 2023
In Splendour and Mystery, Sydney Chamber Choir under the direction of Sam Allchurch joined forces with Camerata Antica led by Matthew Manchester and organist Thomas Wilson in an adventurous anthology of music written for double choir.
This was an intelligent and audacious program from Allchurch, performed with glorious sound by a choir secure in technique, pitch and musicianship.
“The brilliance of brass and the warmth of the human voice, in a concert of resonances and reflections. From Renaissance masters Gabrieli and Schütz, the original ‘surround sound’, with multiple choirs calling to each other in glorious harmony. From British mystic John Tavener, a tantalising journey into eternity, with voices overlapping like waves on sand.
Australian composers Clare Maclean and Brooke Shelley draw on melodies of the past to create new worlds of transcendent beauty. And at the heart of this program, the exquisite Mass for Double Choir of the 20th-century Swiss composer Frank Martin: intensely private music created for the ears of God alone.”
Artists
Sydney Chamber Choir
Sam Allchurch
Conductor
Camerata Antica
Led by Matthew Manchester
Program
Giovanni Gabrieli
Canzon seconda a 4
Jubilate Deo
Magnificat
Clare Maclean
Christ the King
Frank Martin
Mass for Double Choir
Heinrich Schütz
Deutsches Magnificat
Brooke Shelley
Heavenly Father
John Tavener
A Hymn to the Mother of God