“Polifemy – A Ceremony of Carols”, Wesley Uniting Church, Sunday, December 6. Reviewed by GRAHAM McDONALD.

POLIFEMY is a small, all-female choir originally formed in 2008 to sing unaccompanied vocal music composed by nuns of the Renaissance.

This wonderfully specific musical focus has been broadened over the years and the music for this concert was written entirely by men. These included several of the great composers of Renaissance vocal music which were bookended by two settings by Canberra composer David Yardley to open the concert and Benjamin Britten’s “Ceremony of Carols” to finish.

The ensemble for this concert was musical director Robin Mellor and eight other singers with the addition of harpist Alice Giles for the Britten suite.

The two opening songs by David Yardley are charming settings of medieval verse and certainly did not feel out of place being followed by motets by Josquin des Prez, Tomas Luis de Victoria, Cristobel de Morales and Francisco Guerrero. The latter two composers are a new discovery and “Regina Coeli Laetare” by Morales simply floated along with the two soprano soloists cruising over the top.

Similarly impressive was “Duo Seraphim” by de Victoria, which simply shimmered.

Benjamin Britten’s “Ceremony of Carols” was written in 1942, with the words taken from medieval and renaissance poetry in 11 short movements. The sole accompaniment is a harp, played by Alice Giles with her usual flair, and she also gets a solo interlude in the middle. The other 10 movements are settings of poetry with the music styles ranging from the ancient to almost jarringly modern in one short solo piece. Nevertheless, it all fits together into a 20-minute or so suite of always interesting music.

Robin Mellor has put together a delightful and well thought out concert of different Christmas music.

Mention must be made of the two soprano soloists, Catherine Schmitz and Rachel Walker, whose singing was of the highest quality, although all the singers made notable contributions. Perhaps the lower voices could be a little stronger as the sopranos do tend to dominate at times. This is but a minor quibble about a most satisfying concert.