Kurt Sanderling, who died last year in Berlin at the age of 98, was a name known to me from my formative days of record-collecting, through his 1950s recording made with the Leningrad Phllharmonic of Rachmaninov's Second Symphony - one of those early cotton-stitched white-and-yellow panelled Deutsche Grammophon LP covers with the composer's facsimile autograph scribbled across the central vertical yellow panel (all very tasteful and esoteric, obviously aimed at... read more

This was the first of two concerts given by separate choirs in the capital on different days of the same weekend and in the same venue, both featuring the music of Benjamin Britten. If, after reading this, you're confused, I confess that I myself had to re-type the sentence a number of times to "fine-tune" and get it right. Fortunately, I was scheduled to attend both events, thus avoiding... read more

Though associated by dint of its "Birth of Christ" references with Christmastime, Messiah has as many affinities with the other "big" Christian event of the Liturgical year, which is, of course, Easter. Conductor Stephen Rowley seemed to emphasize the latter connection at the very beginning of the work in the Bach Choir of Wellington's recent performance. In fact, it could have been that "High Priest of the German classics"... read more

Auckland-based pianist Georgina Zellan-Smith is, sadly, an infrequent visitor to Wellington these days. She performed here last at a commemorative concert in 2008 which marked the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Richard Farrell, on which occasion she played an excerpt from Liszt's Italian Book of his "Years of Pilgrimage". On that evening she shared the piano with Maurice Till, Margaret Nielsen, Diedre Irons and Jun Bouterey-Ishido. So it... read more

Of all the works produced by that exemplar of creative industry and longevity Josef Haydn (1732-1809), his oratorio "The Seasons" is surely one of the happiest on all counts. In the work the composer gives full expression to his delight in nature, his obvious relish for country pastimes (blood-sports and all), and his serene religious faith. What strikes the listener at a first hearing is the work's ceaseless flow of... read more

The concert was brought into being by the sounds of a trumpet played by Horomona Horo, creating both a ceremonial and a haunting effect, and thus suggesting limitless possibilities. One of these, appropriately resembling a voice from long ago, was a Sequence composed by Hildegard of Bingen, the twelfth-century abbess, poet, composer and mystic. Growing beautifully from out of the expectant silence, the text O viridissimi Virga sung the... read more

I must confess my first reaction upon receiving this CD was of surprise that so gifted an executant as Georgina Zellan-Smith would expend so much of her energies on "faded trifles" such as these. Especially in the wake of the same pianist's excellent Beethoven/Hummel CD, whose interesting and unique compilation of repertoire "enlarged" the piano-playing world for me, I thought this collection seemed, by comparison, somewhat surplus to requirements... read more

One should never underestimate the power of headlines as attention-grabbers! Experience suggests that some of these printed declamations are blatantly untrue, some patently absurd, and still others somewhat far-fetched (the few that are left have the merest grain of verisimilitude). In the present case, equating Douglas Lilburn's 1951 song-cycle Elegy with Schubert's Winterreise might be an impertinence for some people - in which case they will qualify the heading of... read more

Contrast was very much the going order for this concert, given by the Australian group Ensemble Liaison, with violinist Wilma Smith, in the Wellington Town Hall. The group made light of the rather over-generous acoustic and voluminous spaces of the venue, with some extremely focused and well-projected playing throughout the varied program. As well, the ear soon adjusted to the prevailing ambience, so that the sounds soon became as... read more

Though Piers Lane has been a frequent visitor to New Zealand I'd not heard him play before attending this recital. Naturally I was keen to confirm in my own mind the good things I'd heard various people report about his playing; and the recital's first half seemed amply to confirm this impression. In the case of each composer (I knew some of Scriabin's Piano Sonatas, but not his Preludes)... read more