2014 Concert Season

Mass of the Children
Saturday 26 July 7:30pm, Knox Church

DAVID BURCHELL, conductor
CITY CHOIR DUNEDIN
COLUMBA JUNIOR MADRIGAL CHOIR
SOUTHERN SINFONIA ENSEMBLE
Soloists: Cathy Sim, Calla Knudson-Hollebon, Clinton Fung, Peter Wigglesworth, James Burchell

John Rutter: Mass of the Children
Benjamin Britten: Rejoice in the Lamb
David Hamilton: Dance-Song to the Creator
David Hamilton: Three Spirituals
and more

Celebrated 20th century English composers are the main focus of this programme, providing us with magnificent and beautifully constructed works. The Britten has dancing rhythms, is feisty, energetic and is a happy marriage of music and poetry. Mass of the Children is absolutely breathtaking and is Rutter at his best: exciting and engaging with the exquisite blending of children and adult voices.

As a bonus the Columba College senior choir, Cantus Columba, will perform their ‘Big Sing’ numbers.

Haydn: The Creation
Wednesday 3 September 7:00pm, Dunedin Town Hall

Presented by the NZSO in association with ANZ PRIVATE BANK
NICHOLAS MCGEGAN, conductor
MADELEINE PIERARD, soprano
ROBIN TRITSCHLER, tenor
JONATHAN LEMALU, bass-baritone
CITY CHOIR DUNEDIN

Haydn brings forth magnificence from silence as he retells the creation of the world, taking inspiration from the Bible’s The Book of Genesis and Milton’s Paradise Lost. Haydn once confessed, ‘I want to write a work that will give permanent fame to my name in the world’. With The Creation, he has certainly achieved this. Featuring some of the very best voices from New Zealand and abroad, the sensational talents of Madeleine Pierard and Jonathan Lemalu are joined by one of Britain’s leading young tenors, Robin Tritschler. With renowned early music specialist Nicholas McGegan leading the orchestra, this Creation will enchant.

Waves Upon Waves
Saturday 15 November 7:30pm, Auckland Town Hall

Auckland Choral presents Vaughan Williams’ A Sea Symphony with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra and welcomes back City Choir Dunedin for this special occasion. Soloists are the distinguished baritone David Griffiths and Viennese soprano Ursula Langmayr, whose poetic expression enthralled audiences on her last visit.

Reinhard Flatischler, percussion soloist, and composer Johnny Bertl, also from Vienna, together wrote Waves Upon Waves especially for this world premiere. This Suite for Choir, Percussion and Orchestra promises to be a tremendous feast of colour, rhythm and drive.

URSULA LANGMAYR, soprano
DAVID GRIFFITHS, baritone
REINHARD FLATISCHLER, percussion
CITY CHOIR DUNEDIN
AUCKLAND CHORAL
AUCKLAND PHILHARMONIA ORCHESTRA
UWE GRODD, conductor

Gloria! A Baroque Christmas
Friday 19 December 7:30pm, Knox Church

DAVID BURCHELL, conductor
CITY CHOIR DUNEDIN
SOUTHERN SINFONIA
Soloists: Lois Johnston, Cathy Sim, Claire Barton, Ben Madden

Buxtehude: Das neugeborne Kindelein
Schein: Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ
Praetorius: In dulci jubilo
Charpentier: In Nativitatem Domini Nostri Jesu Christi H414
Bach: Cantata 133: Ich freue mich in dir 
Handel:  Messiah chorus ‘For unto us a child is born’
Telemann:   Solo cantata for soprano
Clérambault: Hodie Christus natus est
Vivaldi: Gloria in D major, RV589

The featured work in this Baroque Christmas concert is the familiar and popular Gloria by Vivaldi. The wonderfully sunny nature of the Gloria, with its distinctive melodies and rhythms, and the brilliance and variety of textures displayed in the eleven movements of this work, make it a tremendously appealing example of late Baroque sacred music.

Charpentier’s In Nativitatem Domini Nostri Jesu Christi portrays, with delicacy and passion, the age-old story of the Evangelist calling the shepherds to Bethlehem, there to find Joseph, Mary and the infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.

Bach composed the Christmas cantata Ich freue mich in dir in Leipzig in 1724 for the Third Day of Christmas. The work is suffused with earthy and realistic touches bathed in an otherworldly heavenly glow. It is surprising that the final chorale harmonization has not become famous as a Christmas carol, for it is a wonderful melody, beautifully harmonized.

These three works form the backbone of this celebration of the birth of Christ in our Baroque Christmas concert, and together with other shorter works by Buxtehude, Schein, Praetorius, Handel, Telemann and Clérambault, the music is presented in the spirit of joy that is Christmas!

Choir and orchestra impressive

Tuesday evening's performance in the Dunedin Town Hall of Handel's Messiah was one of the best I have heard in Dunedin.

City Choir Dunedin with its recent 150th anniversary events and Southern Sinfonia's trip to Japan has seen both these groups step up to impressive new levels in performance.

Musical Director David Burchell conducted an unabridged version from the harpsichord, and the standing ovation and long applause from a large audience confirm my sentiment.

Sinfonia's strings maintained a particularly united tone throughout - tight and free from "loose ends", and trumpet solos were excellent.

Clarity and pulse were seldom compromised and the orchestral "solo" Pastoral Symphony was a beautifully articulated cantabile highlight. Good dynamics and choral blend in Glory to God in the Highest and a brilliant delivery of And with His Stripes we are Healed were choral highlights.

Soloists on this occasion were Lois Johnston, whose pure-toned quality soprano range excelled throughout, with artistic florid embellishment and melismatic passages, several at virtuosic tempi.

Alto Amanda Cole has fine tone and projection in the upper register, which added lustre to decorated cadence points, but there was a lack of strength in the lower voice where many of the solo lines sat, and despite her passion and sincerity the sound failed to dominate, becoming lost in the string blend.

Tenor David Hamilton delivered his text with rapport and strength - such a convincing soloist with mellifluous tone. His commanding narrative in Comfort Ye set a standard for all that followed.

The bass soloist was Jonathan Lemalu, whose voice I find is changing from the youthful clear-toned bass which many locals watched develop. The unique wonderful richness in the timbre remains as does his professional delivery and countenance, but at times heavy vibrato muddies intonation definition in the lower scalic passages.

A triumphant performance overall to herald the festive season.

Review by Elizabeth Bouman for the Otago Daily Times, 12 December 2013.

Feedback received from the audience

From Melissa:
Was so Absolutely Fantastic!! Loved the Choir and the Musicians were Brilliant. Wonderful production.

From Catherine:
I think this was the best performance you've done - congratulations to everyone involved!

From Rosalind:
A sparkling performance from start to finish! The tone clear and bright throughout, beautifully light and dancing in the fast numbers (All We Like Sheep, His Yoke is Easy, He Shall Purify etc) a full-bodied and thrilling sound in the big choruses but never ponderous or heavy. My niece who had just arrived from UK where she has heard many Messiah performances pronounced it "Storming!"

From Jane:
As you may know, I was ushering last night, not singing. I thought I would pass on to you a comment I overheard as patrons were leaving. One old gentleman (probably around 80) said: "It's the best Messiah I've heard for years!" Judging by his age and the fact that I've seen him at many many classical music concerts over the years, I believe it to have been a heartfelt comment.

From Anne:
Friends thought it was the best performance they had heard. And I really liked this from another friend of mine: “One of the best parts of that Messiah last night was the altos! You all were so smooth and strong.”

From Marguerite:
I was walking down Moray Place after the concert and I met two women whom I didn't know from Adam who said, "What a wonderful performance, it was great"!

From Judy:
The Messiah was the best performance I've ever heard from the choir. It was their combined total enthusiasm.