Castlemaine Double | Keys of Gold Festival | Bendigo Fine Music
12 July, 2025 Castlemaine Uniting Church and Christ Church, Castlemaine, VIC
Bendigo Chamber Choir, Michael Bottomley (Director), Thomas Heywood (Organ)
There is nothing more exciting to a festival pass holder than someone announcing to the queue that the concert is sold out and there will be no sales at the door.
In its first year, the Keys of Gold festival is the brainchild of organ superstar Thomas Heywood and includes 45 performers, 16 concerts in 11 venues with 11 different organs. And on this occasion the concert featured two different organs in two venues in the historic gold rush town of Castlemaine, about an hour north of Melbourne, or half an hour south of the gold rush capital, Bendigo.
Featuring the Bendigo Chamber Choir, conducted and directed by Michael Bottomley, the concert started in the Castlemaine Uniting Church with a program of popular classics for choir and organ, including Haydn’s The heavens are telling, Fauré’s Cantique de Jean Racine, Mozart’s Ave verum corpus and the Laudate Dominum with Louise Clarke doing a lovely job in the solo role, rounded off by a rousing rendition of Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus.
Part I of the program was balanced by Heywood’s fine accompaniments on the 1910 Fincham organ and his lovely selection of baroque music, Vivaldi transcribed by Bach, Handel transcribed by Best and a very cute, more recent work, by Pietro Yon, Humoresque ‘L’organo primitivo.’ It was all light and very entertaining.
In contrast to the polite restraint of the first half, Part II, aptly titled ‘The Glory of France’ was held a short walk away at Christ Church, Castlemaine and delivered an entirely different experience with music by Guilmant, Langlais and Vierne.
The very pretty 1888 Fincham organ certainly got a work out, both in the Grand Choeur in D mayor – Alla Handel by Guilmant and Louis Vierne’s Carillon de Westminster but also, along with the choir, in the Messe solennelle (1951) by Jean Langlais, five movements of the mass in an extraordinary setting driven as much by the shape of phrasing and wonderful interplay between the choral writing and, as described in the program notes, ‘vast organ outbursts.’
Together, Michael Bottomley and the Bendigo Chamber Choir with organ maestro Heywood – bringing cathedral vibes to the accompaniment – delivered an electric performance. The Messe solennellle is a challenging work, technically demanding, composed in a loose and advanced tonal style.
Good thing the festival audience were also up to the challenge, judging from the gasps and turned heads and the way some audience members leapt to their feet at the end in appreciation. We were on the journey together. After all, what else are festivals for, and with 10 more concerts to go, there’s plenty more fine music on the way.
