Music / The Waiting Sky – Music for the Christmas Season, Polifemy. At Wesley Uniting Church, December 7. Reviewed by ROB KENNEDY.

Christmas music is said to convey a feeling of breathless expectation and hope. The women’s vocal consort Polifemy created a Christmas concert that aimed to capture the sense of anticipation around this time of year.

With works by Renaissance composers John Sheppard, Tomas Luis de Victoria, Jacobus Handl, Agostino Agazzari and Juan de Castro, complemented by modern carols from Sarah Quartel, Wilfrid Mellors, Oliver Tarney, and James MacMillan, this concert covered hundreds of years of Christmas music.

Programmed in three parts, The Visitation, Vignettes (capturing images of the first Christmas) and Celebration, the setting, the sound, the ambience of every piece sat perfectly in balance with one another.

With different composers in each part, from 1450 to 1984, the way each piece blended and spoke to one another worked exceptionally well.

With the director, Robyn Mellor at the end singing and conducting, with Annabelle Burian, Caroline Downer, Hanna-Mari Latham, Liz McKenzie, Isabelle Mellor, Catherine Schmitz and Rachel Walker, this small female vocal ensemble produced a mellow, unified tonal quality that could stand up against the best vocal groups around.

Their balanced polyphonic singing through subtle and highly effective well-placed intonation created a sound that was more than effecting. The Ave Virgo Sanctissima attributed to Josquin des Pres c1450-1521, showed all the qualities of the group in the one piece.

Inherent in each work was that singular inner beauty which defines and distinguishes this kind of vocal music. That’s why these songs are still around after all this time.

In the final part, the Celebration, all works came from composers of the 20th century, and all were sung in English. The feeling and tonal quality changed only slightly. Some contemporary techniques highlighted the changes in rhythmic content, and in one work, This Endris Night by Canadian composer Sarah Quartel, b.1982, it included hand chimes. But that floating, praise-filled ethereal quality did not subside. The chimes mesmerised.

The final work, Nova! Nova! Ave Fit Ex Eva, by Scottish composer James MacMillan b.1959, offered an energetic retelling of the Annunciation story from Luke 1:26-38. It had greater rhythmical and dynamic variance and was a superb way to end a short and well-performed concert designed for this end-of-year season.