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Standing ovation for 'Messiah'
Handel's Messiah, Regent Theatre, Tursday, 13 December 2011
What is it I wonder, that makes people sit for two and a half hours, listening so intently to Handel's most famous oratorio Messiah, written in just three weeks in 1741.
"Christmas just wouldn't be the same without attending a performance of Messiah," one patron told me.
City of Dunedin Choir and Southern Sinfonia shifted their two-yearly performance of Messiah to the Regent Theatre this year, and the very well-filled venue created a different view and atmosphere, but the familiar choruses and arias certainly rang out loud and true last evening, as Christ's life on earth was outlined in music, and the final Amens were followed by tumultuous applause and standing ovation.
David Burchell conducted magnificently from the harpsichord, with a wise choice of tempi. The 29-member baroque orchestra excelled in their response. The choir's performance, with several choruses from memory, was very impressive and disciplined, despite a little under-weight in the tenor section.
Strong soprano tone reached their pinnacle in the Hallelujah Chorus, and exciting strength and verve from all sections was accorded the big choruses such as Lift Up Your Head.
The three choruses in the "Agony of the Cross" section were delivered with clarity and particularly fine nuance.
Soprano Anna Leese, now well entrenched in a successful international career, was home to perform. The voice is noticeably maturing and rich and all her arias were exquisite with the finest legato tone. Come Unto Him was stunningly performed - so liquid and pure through subtly embellished phrases.
Mezzo Wendy Doyle (Wellington) was successful in a convincing delivery from a particularly low timbre register, and young tenor Cameron Barclay (Auckland) brought clear diction and sincerity to his solos.
Bass Chalium Poppy (Tauranga) performed with confidence and strength although was not always technically secure.
Reviewed by Elizabeth Bouman for the Otago Daily Times, Wednesday, 14 December 2011.
Concert in tune with RWC festivities
Last Night of the Proms, Dunedin Town Hall, Tursday, 22 September 2011
Dunedin Town Hall was a sellout last evening for a special Proms concert by Southern Sinfonia, St Kilda Brass and City of Dunedin Choir.
In addition to traditional Proms repertoire from Mother England, music performed represented the six countries playing Rugby World Cup matches in Dunedin.
There was a tumultuous reception for two visiting sons of Dunedin - conductor Tecwyn Evans (United Kingdom based) and bass/baritone Jud Arthur (Australia).
Promenaders packed the lower floor in a riot of colour.
Balloons, flags and streamers were everywhere in the red, white and blue carnival atmosphere.
Kapa haka group He Waka Kotuia kicked off with Mihi whakatau followed by national anthems and the orchestral fanfare Peace by New Zealand composer Dorothy Buchanan.
Arthur's rich operatic voice delivered Italian arias - Non pi andrai (Mozart) and La calunnia (Rossini).
A thrilling rendition of Verdi's popular Anvil Chorus came from the choir, St Kilda Brass and Sinfonia, with celebrity guest percussionist Vicki Treadell (British High Commissioner) in Union Jack and smithy's apron playing the anvil.
Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture, with volleys of cannon-fire and haze of smoke, was a highlight from the Russian front.
Georgian March from Caucasian Sketches by Ippolitov-Ivanov added Georgian flavour and Rumanian Dances, by Hungarian composer Bela Bartok, was very well performed by the Southern Sinfonia.
A toe-tapping Irish Washerwoman set Irish blood a-pulsing, and Argentina was recognised with Variazione by Ginastera. The World in Union, official song of the RWC is drawn from Holst's The Planets.
Strong unison string themes were spine-tingling, and appropriate for inclusion in the well-selected programme. Arthur dressed in an All Black shirt and Union Jack led the audience in spirited singing of Rule Britannia, Jerusalem and the final Now is the Hour. Kate Mead (Wellington) compered with witty repartee, and a replica bottle of Shackleton's whisky, donated by the British Embassy, was auctioned by Dougal Stevenson, and fetched $1050.
Reviewed by Elizabeth Bouman for the Otago Daily Times, Friday, 23 September 2011.
Audience appreciates favourites
Demidenko plays Rachmaninov, Dunedin Town Hall, Saturday, 13 August 2011
Unashamedly romantic, big and boisterous, Rachmaninov's 3rd Piano Concerto has become a firm favourite with concert audiences around the Western world. It was certainly appreciated by a Dunedin audience on Saturday.
Nikolai Demidenko's performance captured the work's full-bodied brooding, as well as its mercurial light, with dazzling agility and excellent weighting. The build to climax at the end of the final movement is always enthralling. While it is a big ask, at times the Southern Sinfonia strings could have been more attuned to Demidenko's crisp vigour.
Demidenko gave an encore of Chopin's Nocturne, drawing a wealth of expression from a work at the other end of the dramatic scale. Again, the audience was enraptured.
Performed with considerable vigour by the Southern Sinfonia, the first movement of Brahms' Symphony No 1 suffers from a degree of aural doodling. However, it gains structural strength as Beethoven's ghost - ominous chords and drum beats which interrupt an otherwise warm melody - lifts from Brahms' shoulders. The work was well performed at a good speed under the direction of an unusually demonstrative Werner Andreas Albert. Special note goes to the melding of first violins and flute and clarinet.
The difficulty of Ravel's popular collection of suites, Mother Goose, lies in not putting the audience to sleep. The collection's Debussy-like melodies require a degree of gravity and tension to make the tales and moments precious. However, only the serene Fairy Garden, under Albert's direction, had sufficient edge to satisfy the need for adventure.
Reviewed by Marian Poole for the Otago Daily Times, Monday, 15 August 2011.
'Feast' takes ears by storm
Belshazzar's Feast, Dunedin Town Hall, Saturday, July 16 2011
Belshazzar's Feast, the rather unique oratorio composed by English composer William Walton in 1930-31, was performed on Saturday evening in the town hall by Southern Sinfonia with City of Dunedin Choir, conducted by Dane Lam.
Lam has said that Belshazzar's Feast is "big and noisy" and he certainly pulled out all the stops to get the very best from his musicians, interpreting the pagan rituals, worship of false gods and triumphant partying that is all part of this work. The music's unpredictability surprises the listener throughout, with its underlying traces of jazz, heinous irregularity of beat and sudden eruptions of outrageous sound.
Certainly a rare experience to hear this work live. Well done to all, though at many times I longed for an extra 100 voices to "conquer" the Sinfonia, revelling in their rich jagged orchestration and strident outbursts.
Internationally acclaimed New Zealand bass/baritone Paul Whelan, in the role of narrator, advanced the sectional plots. His unaccompanied Babylon Was a Great City was a stupendous delivery, with fervent tone and pristine diction.
The concert's opening works were hugely contrasting.
There's nothing quite like a good strong overture to open an orchestral event, but instead we were given Vaughan Williams' Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, a string work of peace and serenity, somewhat loosely presented, with many soft entries tentative rather than gentle.
Aaron Copland's Appalachian Spring (1944) with its strains of American melodies and Shaker tunes, particularly Lord of the Dance, was well defined and an enjoyable lead-up to the main work, but it would have been such a bonus to have heard Whelan (1993 Cardiff Singer of the World) perform in the first half of the concert.
Reviewed by Elizabeth Bouman for the Otago Daily Times, Monday, 18 Jul 2011.
Master clarinettist enthrals big crowd
Every seat was taken yesterday in the King's and Queen's Performing Arts Centre, when Southern Sinfonia performed four contrasting works, with Melbourne-based conductor Brett Kelly.
The same programme had already been performed to an almost full auditorium early on Saturday evening, showing the continuing popularity of the region's symphony orchestra.
The concerts opened with Orchestra Suite No 3 in D Minor, a five-movement work in true Baroque blend in a venue ideal for this genre, especially kind to harpsichord balance.
The familiar second movement Air was particularly well paced and precise.
Guest performer for Mozart's Clarinet Concerto K 662 was internationally acclaimed clarinettist Michael Collins.
Collins is an absolute master of this instrument and, along with the capacity audience, I was enthralled by his mastery on "basset clarinet" with its splendid lower register resonance. He performs on a modern reproduction of the instrument for which Mozart wrote his Clarinet Concerto in 1791.
The opening Allegro was highlighted by the soloist's immaculate phrasing and sublime arpeggios, which continued through all movements. Collins accorded the work a loving and tender delivery, with remarkable legatissimo quality.
Voice-like tonal purity announced the opening subject of the Adagio and the Sinfonia rose to match its esteemed soloist with impressive background fabric, and well-defined nuance.
Symphonic Dances by Chris Adams, current Mozart Fellow at University of Otago, received its world premiere. A colourful nine-minute commissioned work in which every section certainly "got their money's worth".
Many intricate themes and obligato passages in unusual combinations and key shifts made for a very successful and enjoyable contemporary work.
Beethoven's Symphony No 1 completed the programme.
The Mozart's Clarinet Concerto concert held on Sunday 19 June 2011 was reviewed for the ODT by Elizabeth Bouman.
Southern Sinfonia raises its game again... bravo
Unusual vitality and a masculine approach from violin soloist Lara St John wowed a capacity crowd at the Southern Sinfonia Concert at the King's and Queen's Performing Arts Centre on Sunday (8 May).
St John's exceptional attack, vivid dramatic interpretation and attention to the conversation with the Sinfonia's string sections were awe-inspiring. However, not all of St John's slides lingering dissonances, or fractionally offbeat entries were achieved with similar grace.
Vivaldi's Four Seasons is such a well-known work there is almost an obligation on soloists to reinvent it. Dwelling on its modern, almost aleatory sounds or taking particular passages at a ripping pace are now an expected part of its performance. The work achieves that fragile balance between the demands on virtuosic technique and dramatic musicality.
The performance of Arvo Pärt's Festina Lente opened too abruptly and never quite settled to its promised melancholic repose. Although, as the work grew, the Sinfonia seemed to work together, its diaphanous layers sounded merely nervous and ultimately misunderstood.
Mistakes in direction included not allowing the work to breathe at its close, not allowing the audience the chance to dwell upon its sound world or even to be sure it had finished, and finally, not allowing them the opportunity to acknowledge the Sinfonia's first performance of this intricate and demanding work.
Schubert's Unfinished Symphony was performed with great control and elegance.
Under Werner Andreas Albert's economic yet highly sensitive direction, all sections of the Sinfonia sounded polished and professional.
The Southern Sinfonia really does seem to raise its game with each performance and is to be commended for bending its audience's ears to musical languages from outside those of the Great Tradition. This was a thoroughly enjoyable concert.
The Phenomenal Lara St. John concert was reviewed for the ODT by Marian Poole.
Near-capacity crowd treated to triple virtuosity
Actually this was not, as promoted, a night of Double Virtuosity. It was instead a night of Triple Virtuosity, with an excellent programme heartily appreciated by a near capacity crowd.
Tippett's polite Little Music - a prelude and fugue is cleverly strung together and, under the direction of Simon Over, excellently pointed. Its stringencies promise much, but without becoming a haiku or proverb, it risks saying nothing at all. No doubt there is wisdom there, but nevertheless in throwing away its conclusion, or attempting to make one at all, Little Music disappoints.
Brahms' Double Concerto for violin and cello is a conversation of brief phrases between apparent equals and is the stuff of any liaison. The soloists alternately spar with each other, mutter asides, finish each other's sentences or sing in unison, with various rejoinders from the orchestra.
Both soloists, violinist Tessa Petersen and cellist Heleen du Plessis, are excellent performers. Du Plessis, being largely echoed by the string sections, was given the upper hand.
Petersen was undermined by Brahms' unwillingness to accommodate the advice of his violinist friend. The violin was left to struggle against the wind sections, which were in fine form, or to take full advantage of solo passages.
Vaughan Williams' Fifth Symphony, written during World War 2, was the highlight of the evening. An excellently fragile entry by the brass and subsequent fluid melodies convey the strength of Vaughan Williams' overview.
Preludio concludes with a strong statement; Scherzo is a destabilising dance through rolling asymmetry; Romanza is an anthem to humanity rather than a nostalgic retreat; Passacaglia successfully embraces levity and grandeur. This performance maintained the continuity of that vision throughout the four movements.
Under Simon Over's inspired direction, Southern Sinfonia goes from strength to strength. Bravo!
The Double Virtuosity concert was held in the Dunedin Town Hall on Saturday 2 April 2011 and was reviewed for the ODT by Marian Poole.
Double Virtuosity Interviews
Kate Lovell, Southern Sinfonia publicist, interviewed the artists for the performance of Brahms's Concerto for Violin and Cello in the "Double Virtuosity" concert to be held in the Dunedin Town Hall on Saturday 2 April at 8:00 pm. Download the PDFs to read the interviews with Heleen du Plessis (cello) and Tessa Petersen (violin).