KEY POINTS:
PERFORMANCE
What: Bach Musica
Where and when: Holy Trinity Cathedral, Parnell, Sunday 5pm
It has been three years since Rita Paczian left New Zealand to take up residence on Queensland's Sunshine Coast, which she bemoans as "culturally, a bit of a desert".
Still, there are compensations. The sport available is one - welcome, when Paczian is also a tennis coach.
In fact, she is quick to draw parallels between the tennis court and the conductor's podium, suggesting that "if you are not a sporty person, you might have difficulties trying to feel the music in your body".
"People often come to me after a concert," she says, "and say they like watching me because it's like watching a dancer. It's important that you are not stiff like a policeman regulating traffic."
This Sunday, she leads the singers and musicians of Bach Musica in Brahms' German Requiem.
This may seem far from the Baroque repertoire associated with Bach Musica but Paczian points out that Brahms was one of Bach's biggest admirers.
"He and his friend, Schumann, were classical romantics, which meant they liked to write fugues and chorales."
The singers have also had to consider different approaches working with a 19th century score. "In Baroque music, you attack a note like a bell with a clear start," Paczian says. "With Brahms, you sometimes begin with a little swell."
Paczian first heard the work when the noted German conductor, Helmuth Rilling, performed it at an international conducting course.
"I was blown away and felt that, one day, I would do this great work."
She sees Brahms' piece as more of a humanistic piece than other requiems. "It's not a description of the perils of hell, with last judgments and days of wrath. Brahms was inspired by the deaths of Schumann and his mother. He wrote it as a comfort to the living."
Paczian is pleased with her soloists, David Griffiths and Morag Atchison. "Morag was outstanding when we did the Mozart C minor Mass last year and has just the right big, romantic voice needed for the Brahms. David is a natural musician."
You can feel how deeply Paczian has been drawn to this Brahms work.
"My biggest moment is when there is this huge crescendo from very soft to extremely loud, ending with the words 'all flesh is as grass'. It's one place where I always get goosebumps."
