Concert 2 - El Grillo

Tuesday 5th June @ 7:30pm, Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, UWA (cnr Fairway & Stirling Hwy, Crawley)
Music includes: Josquin des Prez Missa Pange Lingua, Britten Five Flower Songs and music by Arcadelt, Gibbons and Passereau


Join The Giovanni Consort for their second concert of 2012 in the serene Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery at UWA. A reduced 8-voice Consort will present a programme centred around Josquin des Prez's magical Missa Pange Lingua, and lesser-known music based on themes of flora and fauna by Britten, Arcadelt, Gibbons, Passereau and others will also feature. 


Online booking: http://www.trybooking.com/BGUU

Tickets - Adult $30 / Concession $25 / Student $15

Concert 1 - Bon Voyage

Wednesday 28th March @ 7:30pm, Perth College Chapel - 31 Lawley Crescent, Mt Lawley

Music includes: Parry Songs of Farewell, Tormis Songs of the Ancient Sea and music by Byrd, Monteverdi and Grainger


Join The Giovanni Consort for a journey on the seas, featuring Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry’s choral masterpiece, Songs of Farewell. The Consort opens with a Perth premiere performance of a work by Estonian composer, Veljo Tormis. Songs of the Ancient Sea (1979) finds Tormis composing a sequence of runo-songs (old Estonian folksongs) in a modern idiom. The journey then continues, visiting traditional folksongs and Renaissance madrigals.

Parry’s Songs of Farewell offer numerous biographical interpretations of the last years of Parry's life. They may well impart a sense of leave-taking, but more affecting is the impression of mystery and alienation, of life's transitory nature, and of passing into the unknown.

The Consort is delighted to welcome guest conductor, Joseph Nolan (Organist & Master of the Choristers at St. George's Cathedral), to direct the Consort.

Tickets:
Adult $30 / Concession $25 / Student $15. Unreserved seating

Available online from TryBooking or at the door.


Any questions? Email giovanniconsort@gmail.com

2012 Season Launch

Saturday 28 January 4pm, The Grove Library, Peppermint Grove

In 2012 The Giovanni Consort is under new management, focussed on transforming the image of niche choral music, and the image of the Consort itself. Exciting plans are well underway and several significant changes will be implemented during the coming year (including a reduction of ticket prices), all of which will hopefully result in a greater and more diverse following. Needless to say, that we will of course keep to our tradition of polished, stylish, and high-quality singing.

The 2012 Concert Series, comprised of four mid-week concerts, reflects this new direction with performances in new and interesting spaces, including Moore & Moore Cafe in Fremantle, and the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery at UWA. Over the course of the year, the Consort will present an extremely diverse selection of music from all musical periods that will feature some more mainstream choral works, but also some works which have not yet been performed in Perth. Josquin's Missa Pange Lingua, Parry's Songs of Farewell and Britten's Five Flower Songs are just a taste of what lies ahead for the Consort and the listener.

The Consort is delighted to work with two guest conductors in 2012: Joseph Nolan, who since arriving from England in 2008 has changed the face of choral music in Perth, and Jonathan Willcocks (son of Sir David Willcocks) who regularly conducts choirs and orchestras across five different continents. Both of these prodigious musicians will bring their individual flair to the Consort’s highly regarded, meticulous music making.

To help bring these plans to fruition, The Giovanni Consort is looking for Patrons and Subscribers who are interested in supporting the development of young musicians and the arts generally in Western Australia, and who have a passion for sublime and sensitive choral music. Subscribers will receive one ticket to each of our four concerts in 2012 at a discounted rate, while Patrons will receive two tickets to each of our four concerts, reserved seating at each concert, complimentary refreshments at every interval, the ability to purchase additional tickets at a discounted rate, and an invitation for two to an exclusive Patrons' Soiree. This will be an inaugural event designed to thank our faithful audience for their patronage, with canapés, drinks, and an intimate performance by the Consort.

We hope to see you at The Giovanni Consort's 2012 Season Launch, to be held at The Grove Library on Saturday the 28th of January at 4pm. Complimentary season brochures, canapés, and wine will be available, and the Consort will perform a selection of music to whet your musical appetite for the coming year.

In the Midst of Life

Friday 18 November, 7:30pm, Chapel of St Mary and St George, Guildford Grammar School, Terrace Road, Guildford


Works Include: John Sheppard Media Vita, Regis Tharsis, Francesco Guerrero Ave Virgo Sanctissima, Frei Manuel Cardoso Missa Pro Defunctis, as well as Spanish, English and Portuguese music for organ


Conductor: David Gething, Organist: Stewart Smith


A dazzling concert of spectacular Tudor and Renaissance choral and organ music, this program includes some of the most majestic and splendid motets from the great polyphonic masters of the sixteenth and early seventeenth century. The centrepiece of this program is the superb motet Media vita in morte sumus. The opening of this phrase of this awesome work is regarded as one of the greatest passages of all Tudor polyphony.


Also performed in this concert will be motets by the neglected master Francesco Guerrero and extracts from the magnificent and exotic Requiem by Frei Manuel Cardoso. Timeless, spacious and exhilarating, these works feature the rich sonorities and soaring vocal lines that require extra-ordinary technique and stamina. Although rarely heard in a live performance, these motets are perfectly suited to the fine voices of the Giovanni Consort in a concert that should not be missed!

Bach and Beyond

Saturday 3 September, 7:30pm, St Joseph's Catholic Church, Subiaco


Works Include: J.S. Bach Mass in A Major, Cantata BWV98 Was Gott tut, das ist Wohlgethan (excerpts), Cantata BWV106 Gottes Zeit ist die Allerbeste Zeit, Ich Folge Dir Gleichfalls from St. John Passion, Marc-Antoine Charpentier De Profundis Clamavi


The Giovanni Players will join the Giovanni Consort in a program that features sacred works from three generations of baroque masters. The Mass in A major is one of the most elegant and charming of Bach’s Lutheran Masses and a work that looks back to earlier more conservative forms and forward to the gallant style of the late eighteenth-century.


Composed for the private funeral of Maria Thérèse, the wife of Louis XIV, the exquisite motet De profundis clamavi was not only a personal tribute to a beloved royal patron, but a political and aesthetic statement for his own critics at the Court of the ‘Sun King’, as well as a treasure for all ages. 

Conductor: David Gething