Lauren Buckeridge
The Best of the Week
SUNDAY NOVEMBER 19
The 500th Anniversary of the Reformation (RNZ Concert, 10.00am). It’s a great day to be indoors, as today’s packed lineup begins with music to mark the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in Europe. The Choir of Wellington Cathedral of St Paul sings Bach’s Cantata Vespers, including the cantata A Mighty Fortress Is Our God and the motet The Spirit Comes to Help
Our Weakness.
The Sunday Feature (RNZ Concert, 2.00pm). In the fivepart series History Through the Piano, University of Otago emeritus professor of music John Drummond explores some of the most famous piano compositions and studies the historical environments that inspired their composers. In the first episode, Drummond celebrates the world of Mozart.
Afternoon Concert (RNZ Concert, 3.00pm). Today marks the seventh anniversary of the Pike River mine disaster. In 2014, the Orpheus Choir of Wellington commissioned Dave Dobbyn to write a song in memory of the 29 men who were killed in the blast. He created the moving tribute called This Love, which was first performed for the families of the dead men that same year. In this concert, Dobbyn is accompanied by Wellington Young Voices, the Wellington Brass Band and the Orpheus Choir. The programme includes 17 Days, by English composer James McCarthy, which commemorates the dramatic rescue of Chilean miners in 2010, and
If Blood Be the Price, written by Ross Harris to remember the Waihi miners’
strike of 1912.
Opera on Sunday (RNZ Concert, 6.00pm). Bizet’s Carmen is arguably one of opera’s most iconic femmes fatales, and in this production in the Chicago Lyric Opera Series, the role of the seductive gypsy is played by veteran Georgian mezzo Anita Rachvelishvili.
THURSDAY NOVEMBER 23
Saikuru Radio (RDU 98.5fm, 11.00am). Rolling since 1976, RDU is the only alternative radio based in Christchurch and the South Island’s longestrunning independent station. Saikuru Radio is a how-to guide for sustainable living and ways you can help the environment, one step at a time. Listen in Christchurch or stream on rdu.org.nz or radio. org.nz.