This weekend two New Zealand tenors were the stars, at least in the singing department. Yet there could hardly be two tenors inhabiting more different terrain. Simon O’Neill has staked out Wagner as his territory and has already made an international impact there. Keith Lewis would seem as foreign to Wagner as O’Neill would (at this stage at least) to Dowland... read more

The concert was part of a splendid weekend of music.  It was a pity that the riches of a couple of days and an evening were not also to be found throughout the Festival.  I was shocked to discover that the Michael Fowler Centre was only in use four times.  Past... read more

Each one of these recitals was given for free at the Wellington Town Hall, both showing off the resplendent grandeur and variety of tones of the Town Hall's recently refurbished organ. Of the two recitals I enjoyed John Wells' as a whole better, largely because of the programming, though both his and Douglas Mews's recitals had some very fine and interesting things in them. Each featured  some resplendent Bach... read more

Music, theatre and story together provided diverting entertainment for an enthusiastic audience of children of all ages at the Town Hall, with something for everybody, young and old and somewhere in between. These settings of different generations of cautionary tales for children by contemporary composers were brought to life by narrator Nigel Collins, with vivid and colourful support from some of Wellington's finest musicians, some of whom were, at... read more