Reviews: Sydney Chamber Choir's Haydn & Ross Edwards Performance
Limelight
Review: Nelson Mass (Sydney Chamber Choir/Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra)
Angus McPherson| October 2, 2016
A chanting drone from the Sydney Chamber Choir’s bass section opened Ross Edwards’ Mass of the Dreaming: Missa Alchera, conducted by the choir’s Artistic Director Richard Gill. “My religious consciousness is more a Paleolithic one,” Edwards told me in an interview last month. “I can, as we all can, be aware of a force that binds everything together, which is totally mysterious. We’re all participants in a life force that we don’t seem to take much notice of.”
Sounds Like Sydney
Concert Review: Nelson Mass / Sydney Chamber Choir
Shamistha de Soysa | October 3, 2016
From Dreaming to Distress, the Sydney Chamber Choir performed masses themed around these diametrically opposed ideas in their concert last weekend.
Conducted by Richard Gill AO, the choir was joined by the newly re-branded Australian Romantic and Classical Orchestra (previously known as orchestra seventeen88 and now sporting the suitable acronym ARCO), led by Rachel Beesley. Richard Gill is Music Director of the Sydney Chamber Choir and Principal Conductor of the Australian Romantic and Classical Orchestra. He brought together both his charges in an auspicious blend of forces and style for a glorious performance, raptourously received by the audience and which augurs well for future projects.
Sydney Arts Guide
Nelson Mass (Masses For Dreaming And Troubled Times) @ City Recital Hall
Toni Adams| October 3, 2016
This was the final concert for 2016 for both the Sydney Chamber Choir and the Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra (formerly known as orchestra seventeen88). The combination of these two groups, both under the direction of Richard Gill, delivered a wonderful evening’s entertainment to a large audience.
The concert opened with Ross Edwards’ Mass of the Dreaming ‘Missa Alchera’. This was performed a capella by the Sydney Chamber Choir. As a first time listener to this work, I was blown away by its beauty and, as always with Ross Edwards’ work, its deep roots in Australian culture.
