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 

Stabat Mater

Sunday 3 April, 2:30pm, St Patrick's Basillica, Fremantle


Works include: Domenico Scarlatti Stabat Mater, Marc-Antoine Charpentier La Reniement de St Pierre, Ralph Vaughan Williams Five Mystical Songs, Johann Sebastian Bach “O Lamm Gottes, Unschüldig” BWV 656 from The Eighteen for organ, Marcel Dupré “Crucifixion” from Symphonie Passion Op 23 for organ


Conductor: David Gething


For its first concert of the 2011 Concert Series the Giovanni Consort joins with Pipe Organ Plus Organist, Dominic Perissinotto and the renowned Baritone Sitiveni Talea to present Stabat Mater, a concert that will take audiences on a musical journey with religious overtones in celebration of Lent and Easter.


Charpentier’s short but exquisite Latin oratorio Le Reniement de St Pierre on the denial of St. Peter may have been intended for performance in a Holy Week church service, but it is among the most dramatic works he ever wrote. Set for double chorus and organ continuo, the Stabat Mater by Domenico Scarlatti is a sublime and evocative meditation of Christ’s journey to the Cross. The concert will also include organ music by Bach and Dupré then finish with the warm romantic melodies and rich sonorities of The Five Mystical Songs of Ralph Vaughan Williams.