KEY POINTS:
They say opposites attract. If so, the title of Auckland Choral's Sacred and Profane may well have played a part in attracting such a sizeable audience to the Holy Trinity Cathedral on Saturday night.
Pitting the highly civilised English choral tradition against the pagan primitivism of Carl Orff's Carmina Burana was an inspired launch for AC's 2007 season.
Parry's coronation anthem, I was glad, opened with ceremony.
The singers gave it their all, apart from some dimming of energy midway; conductor Peter Watts marshalled sturdy crescendos and John Wells' subtle organ registrations were a joy.
The same composer's Blest Pair of Sirens, a great eight-part swell of music, closed the first half with appropriate grandiloquence.
Bob Chilcott's Canticles of Light left me unmoved. Its compositional skill is unquestionable, but, on this occasion, it needed more colour than organ and tubular bells and, here and there, a smoother choral weave.
The excellent Morag Atchison singing solo from a balcony did not have the same impact as the children's choir that Chilcott has written for.
After interval, Watts had his choir well primed for the promised profanities of Carmina Burana.
From the steady stalking of "O Fortuna" to those curly rhythms of the "Veni, veni, venias", the 100-plus singers were in top gear. Even expected trouble spots like the men-only "Si puer cum puellela" and the sopranos' punishing high Bs in Floret silva were acquitted very respectably.
Atchison was in full flower for the second half, while the problem of high tenor notes in "Olim lacus colueram" was solved by having it beautifully sung by countertenor Geoffrey Coker.
Most memorable was baritone Iain Tetley. Not only was his first appearance as "affetuoso" as you could wish for, but his dramatic engagement with the "Cour d'Amours" sequence reminded one that Orff had originally envisaged Carmina Burana as a theatre piece.
The only let-down, as happened in a 2003 performance of the work, was using two pianos and percussion as a back-drop, instead of full orchestra. While the latter was obviously beyond budget, Orff's full score adds so much to the visceral effect of the work that can so easily become merely repetitious.
