Hearing two programmes of Britten’s choral music in two days (less than 24 hours) may be some kind of record, apart from at Aldeburgh perhaps.   Saturday evening’s concert by the Tudor Consort in the same venue featured two major choral works; Sunday’s a third: Saint Nicolas, Op. 42.  Not as many people attended this concert as were at the previous evening’s, but for a sunny Sunday approaching Christmas... 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

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

It was surprising to find the Tudor Consort performing works by New Zealand composers, and even more surprising to read the title of the concert.   However, there was no question, when one heard the works, about the influence of the renaissance composers on these down-under writers.  There was even less question, but rather joyful astonishment, at the skill of these works, and of The Tudor Consort in presenting them ... read more

It is brave for a symphonic choir to tackle popular music of any vein, and though it could be argued that the music of Cole Porter has closer links with classical music than, say, The Spice Girls or Michael Jackson, the idiom in which composers of ‘popular’ music normally work is pretty remote from Mozart. This evening’s concert did not offer a very strong counter argument to that proposition. Yet it’s... read more

It was unusual for the Wellington Orchestra to be performing  on a Sunday afternoon. The 9/11 date gives a clue - and in fact it's ten years to this very day since New York's World Trade Centre was attacked and destroyed by two hi-jacked terrorist-controlled aircraft. American composer John Adams was commissioned by the New York Philharmonic to write a piece to be performed on the first anniversary of the... read more

To hear 700 secondary school students from all around New Zealand singing together is thrilling indeed, as they did at the conclusion of this three-hour concert. The Wellington Town Hall has hosted much music through its life, but hearing this amount of excellent singing in such a good acoustic is ‘something else’, as is seeing and hearing three boys’ school choirs turning on impromptu haka at the... read more

Tell us about listening to Arvo Pärt in the middle of a wintry Wellington day! Arvo Pärt's music was, I think a wonderful choice of repertoire with which to finish one's work with a choir. Pärt is a composer who's contributed of late to a quiet revolution that's taken place within the confines of contemporary classical music, turning his back on much of the avant-garde modes of expression in favor... read more