Christmas celebrated with brass
New Zealand Symphony Orchestra’s Christmas Brass, conducted by Brian Buerkle
St Paul’s Cathedral, December 7 Reviewed by John Button
There was a sizeable audience in attendance to celebrate Christmas with the superb brass players of the NZSO in the very spacious acoustic of St Paul’s.
There were some additional players plus percussion and it was clear at concert’s end that the audience members thoroughly enjoyed themselves. This was a testimony to the sheer professionalism of the players, for the huge, at times conflicting, reverberation would have made accuracy and tautness of ensemble a major problem.
Some of the works in the programme suited the space; the Hodie Christus Natus Est by Gabrieli was completely at home, and the tight, close harmony of Morten Lauridsen’s O Magnum Mysterium was richly beautiful.
The balance of the wide-ranging selection of pieces generally made the appropriate impact, though some of the more hectic and rhythmically complex moments were, even from relatively close, a bit of a blur.
The playing featured, among other things, some excellent solo moments, reminding us of the sheer calibre of the players that make up our national orchestra.
The disarmingly chatty conductor, American Brian Buerkle, directed with knowledge and enthusiasm, and while everyone clearly enjoyed the predicable Christmas bits – Irving Berlin’s White Christmas, The Little Drummer Boy and more of the same – the Percy Grainger Sussex Mummers’ Christmas Carol, along with the Lauridsen piece, will linger longer in the memory.