Show rhythmically complex, purposeful

Photo credit: Pieter du Plessis

Anna Leese, Gloria & Organ Symphony
Presented by Dunedin Symphony Orchestra
Saturday 13 September 2025
Dunedin Town Hall

My seat for Saturday night’s well-attended concert was in "the Gods". Anecdotally I have heard that the sound in the gods is the best in the auditorium, and now I know that for a fact. There was sparkling clarity at all times, choir tone was strong and well-balanced and their diction was good, the soprano soloists’ glorious tone filled the entire auditorium with ease, and the brilliance of Saint-Saëns orchestration allowed each section and at times each instrument, including the piano duet, to sound with individual precision. 

Poulenc’s Gloria is a strikingly unusual and dramatic work for choir (City Choir Dunedin, director David Burchell and Choirs Aotearoa Otago/Southland, directors Karen Grylls and Ben Madden), soprano soloist (Anna Leese) and orchestra (Dunedin Symphony Orchestra).

The conductor, James Judd, ensured a cohesive balance between choir, orchestra and soloist. The rhythmic imitation in the choir’s Laudamus te section was charmingly playful, and the male entry at Qui Sedes was deliciously robust. 

Leese sang with full-voiced drama in her middle range and exquisitely floated pianissimos in her higher range. Her final Amen was both determined and decisive. 

Saint-Saëns Symphony No. 3 "Organ" unveiled real characteristics of this composer with his use of tone colour, skill with orchestration and development of themes. 

The opening movement started with hushed pianissimo sounds but some rhythmic insecurity crept in and the fast-repeated notes in strings and brass lacked precision and sounded laboured. The organ was treated as an orchestral instrument and its subtle entries ensured a legato effect underpinning the orchestra. The introduction of the main theme for the organ builds in a most unusually soft manner, and then hearing "Norma" utter magnificent chords in the capable hands of David Burchell sent a frisson of excitement through the gods. This symphony is rhythmically complex and Maestro Judd worked hard to keep the music bounding forward with a sense of purpose. 

Review by Judy Bellingham, Otago Daily Times 15 September 2025

Show draws amazing crowd

Zimbe! African Folk with a Jazz Twist 

Saturday 12 July 2025 

Knox Church 

The colours of Africa worn by City Choir Dunedin members set the mood for Zimbe!, Saturday’s vibrant presentation of music from the continent. As choir director/conductor David Burchell said, the event drew ‘‘an amazing crowd’’, packing Knox Church upstairs and down. 

The Jazz Quintet of Bill Martin (piano), Carl Woodward (drums), Nick Cornish (saxophone), Andy Lynch (bass) and Alex Burchell (percussion) provided splendid accompaniment and a reminder of the interlinking of jazz and Africa. 

The 60-strong choir opened with an unaccompanied rendition of the opening of the Gospel of St John, The Word was God, by Afro-American Rosephanye Powell. Then came three well-harmonised spirituals by Auckland-based David Hamilton, the best-known of which was In the Garden. 

The Dunedin Children’s Choir then took the stage with Eru Timoko Ihaka’s waiata Ehara I te mea and Dunedinite Sue Mepham’s 1914, the latter a moving reminder of the fact that of 10,000 horses sent to World War 1, only four returned. 

The children’s choir, formed two years ago, is led by Natasha Manowitz, Susan Frame and Helen Rutherford, who are to be congratulated on their work. The youngsters, some of whom are as young as nine, are to be commended for the aplomb with which they performed. 

Uplifting Congolese folk song Banaha introduced African music before the main event, Zimbe! Come Sing the Songs of Africa, utilising both choirs. The work is an arrangement of songs from all over Africa and encompasses a wide variety, including the humorous drinking song Vamudara, two wedding songs and the slow-moving funeral hymn, Thuma mina. The opening Njooni! Zimbe! is reprised halfway through and then used again as the finale. Catherine Schröder added to the experience with her dances in the centre aisle. Africa’s troubled history was reflected in a lullaby for imprisoned sons and We Shall Not Give Up the Fight, of which the bouncy rhythm had the audience clapping along. 

The young voices impressed in Siyahamba, a Zulu song of worship, before Freedom is Coming, a rip-roaring song of hope in the spiritual and political senses, in which saxophonist Nick Cornish excelled. 

The standing ovation was an appropriate tribute to all involved in a blood-stirring concert that was a midwinter gift.

Review by Gillian Vine, The Star, 17 July 2025