This "Butterfly" has already flittered, swayed, dipped and floated her way down the island from most of the way up north - so quite a few people will by now have seen and heard her. I'll go out on a traditionalist limb and declare that most of these people, I feel certain, would have been pleased to find her heart-rending story more-or-less conventionally staged and costumed, though with enough... read more

A recent work by John Psathas, Tarantismo demonstrated again his considerable skill in orchestral writing, and his inventiveness.  The programme notes explained that the title refers to tarantism, the extreme desire to dance, that used to be attributed to the bite of the tarantula, but is named after the sea port in southern Italy.  From this tradition comes the dance, tarantella, a rapid, whirling dance. The piece opened with tubular... read more

Time was when many people would look at the kind of fare offered by a concert such as this and suddenly discover all kinds of other things that they simply HAD to get done instead, such as mowing the lawns. Although the Ilott Theatre wasn't packed to the extent that it was for Michael Houstoun's recent Beethoven concerts, I thought the attendance was a "good average" for what seemed... read more

One wonders if all the words that can be said about Bryn Terfel have already been said: his magnificent voice, his control of dynamics and vocal nuance, his infinite variety of vocal colour, his resonance, his communication with his audience. He has been gifted with a splendid voice, which he uses with the utmost musical intelligence.  The Michael Fowler Centre had but few empty seats on Friday evening.  Not only was... read more

Dr Douglas K. Mews was Associate Professor of Music at theUniversityofAucklandfrom 1974 until his retirement in 1984.  He was also Director of Music at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Auckland from 1970 to 1982. He was a composer, and a lively, instructive and entertaining broadcaster on what was then the Concert Programme, his soft Newfoundland accent being very easy to listen to. There is a complaint that the general view is that... read more

On the face of things, this was another expertly put-together and engagingly-performed concert in Baroque Voices' Monteverdi series, with pretty much the same underlying features as in previous concerts. But the ensemble has now reached Book Four of the composer's nine separate madrigal collections, one which represents a crisis-point in the series. Monteverdi was to thenceforth embark on a new path, what he called his "Seconda Pratica", moving away from... read more

Cantoris are to be congratulated on a very good performance of Karl Jenkins’s The Armed Man, as is their new director, Brian O’Regan, and accompanying musicians. As soon as the first drum tattoo echoed through St Andrews, I was glad to be there. The choir made a wonderful start as well, producing a rich and full sound that filled the church. Indeed, it was the warmth and depth of the... read more

With some surprise I read in the Stroma program booklet that this was in fact the SECOND "Mirror of Time" Concert presented by the Ensemble, following on from an occasion in 2012 - had I recently awakened from a kind of "Rip Van Winkel" sleep, or something? I had been to and reviewed a couple of Stroma concerts that year, but I couldn't remember a "Mirror of Time" title... read more

Musical recognition of ANZAC Day (apart from ritualised hymns) has not been a common thing, as far as I can remember. And looking back over the record of reviews in Middle C, I can find no significant concerts, at least since 2008, that attempted to mark the day. The last with any sort of connection was a small chamber music concert that accompanied an exhibition of Gallipoli paintings by artist... read more

St. Mark’s Church, Lower Hutt, was a venue perfectly suited to a delightful concert by an ensemble such as the New Zealand Guitar Quartet. The warm, yet clear, acoustics showcased the players’ complete technical mastery of their instruments, and enhanced the musical sensitivity of the recital. The relatively intimate scale of the space supported the informal rapport with the audience that the players developed by their commentary on the... read more