Catch this one in true Riverlea style
Mentioned in Despatches: A Feast:
On Saturday night, at 7pm, in St Peter’s Cathedral, Hamilton Civic Choir is presenting Musical Souls, a positive feast of four beautiful, dramatic and exhilarating courses. This Despatches mention is a reminder to get there early, well before the 7pm start time, because this is a concert of exquisitely beautiful choral music, and Hamilton Civic is one of the few choirs with the authority, the experience, and the leadership to release the true soul of this music. The choir will open with Herbert Howells’ A Hymn to
St Cecilia, the famous text for the patron saint of music in which the music is both jubilant and uplifting. Britten’s Rejoice in the
Lamb releases the very soul of Christopher Smart’s Jubilate Agno, Maurice Durufle´ ’s setting of the Requiem is one of the most loved and beautiful works with its prominent use of the organ, and the choir finishes with Norwegian composer Ola Gjeilo’s Luminous Night of the Soul. This is a concert to cherish.
More information at www. hamiltoncivicchoir.org.nz, or email secretary@hamiltoncivicchoir.org.nz.
There is a myth that the music is what makes musical theatre. Not so. As with all theatre, character is the medium through which ideas and entertainment flows. This new show by Musikmakers has some great music, delivered equally by new and experienced voices and the instrumental power of Barr’s nine member Big Band. It also has a fine cast, again dividable, this time into actors, and ensemble singers and dancers. There are one or two surprises in the narrative, but the score and libretto follow recognisable patterns and the entertainment and audience enjoyment are created by the passion and technical skill of the cast. In turn, those qualities are creatively marshalled by director Lawrie Johnson and choreographer Shanelle Borlase on a set intelligently designed for the Riverlea stage. On that stage, even with an audience enjoying the two key leads – Patrick Ward as con artist Frank Abagnale Jr, and Mike Williams as the cop pursuing Frank, there was a standout performance from Johan Niemand. He played Frank junior’s father, a hard drinking, loose living guy who heartily approved of his son’s chosen lifestyle. What Niemand did with his character was to anchor the whole show with emotional depth, functionally clear diction, and a top drawer singing voice with huge range. Coupled with a sensitivity to the lyrics and the character, his presence introduced a whole new dimension. True pathos, drunken moves full of suspense as, for example, he nearly falls off his bar stool, and a confident looseness so appropriate to the character moved his role out of the often superficial characters of traditional musical theatre to something approaching opera. Once again we are being treated to entertaining theatre in true Riverlea style.
We need increased audiences. Right now. The management and membership of Trust Waikato Symphony Orchestra knows that, and are successfully establishing an annual event as a Hamilton tradition, an all comers concert where the youngest members of the audience have not yet had a first birthday and they were there on Sunday, already turning into people who have a passion for music. That same passion existed in the orchestra as they enjoyed this audience, smiling as they played, and working to the littlies with all the pleasure of performers who love what they do. They built their introduction to the classics around such diverse works as Strauss’s foot tapping, hand clapping Radetzky March and Henry Mancini’s Pink
Panther theme, and played to this group with the same attention and perfection they bring to a full blown classical concert. It was scene so appropriately figured in the first stanza of the Mancini lyrics.
When we played our charade We were like children posing Playing at games, acting out names
Guessing the parts we played…
Wide eyed kids on cushions. Kids dancing in the aisles and on their mums and dads. Littlies and not so littlies moving to the music, completely absorbed. Kids and parents having so much fun that when the small fry come of age they will remember this concert in such nostalgic comments as ‘‘When we were little we always went to the TWSO concerts and sat on cushions and did clapping and Sharon laughed out loud every time the trombones blew off…’’ If there is nothing else we do, let us nurture that audience with everything we can offer them.
Here is a fact for nothing. Alfred Schnittke, outre Russian/ German composer, suffered a major stroke in later life, was declared clinically dead several times, but recovered and continued to compose. When tonight’s quartet was being introduced by cellist Gott, she reminded us that it was much better for music that he continued to compose rather than decompose. It is a tribute to Schnittke, whose music they play, although not tonight, that they call themsleves the Lazarus String Quartet.
The wit was received with a rare pleasure, although in the end, even greater pleasure, and it was profound, came from their music.
The venerable wooden container known as St Andrew’s Church was saturated with sound in a manner one rarely experiences with strings.
The resonance so filled the space we felt that we were sitting among the players, gorging on an exquisite musical feast.
The Bartok – his String Quartet No 2 in A minor, Op. 17 – became even more intense and disturbing.
The quartet extracted every dissonant nuance, every dramatic nightmare, all the emotional extremes which connected players and listeners in an unforgettable sharing of emotions.
In a moment of perfect programming, programming which enhanced the performance of each work by setting it against inescapable difference, the bookending beauties of the Beethoven and Mozart were revealed with even greater clarity. Even so, in this audience accessible display of creative virtuosity there were still further highlights to cherish, such as those moments where the cello came out of an organically harmonious group delivery to bring sonorous riches which made the Gott sound unique.
These were the liveliest of strings, full of an energy which which illuminated even the gentlest ppp – and in the fourth, and final, required by Beethoven to be played ‘‘delicately’’, we were treated to a climactic finale which defined masterwork performance.
‘‘When we were little we always went to the TWSO concerts and sat on cushions and did clapping and Sharon laughed out loud every time the trombones blew off . . .’’