Auckland Choral's Messiah provided a much-loved finale to the city's musical year and this week's performance earned cheers and standing ovations from an almost capacity audience.
Handel, a shrewd assessor of public taste, provided just the right music for what his librettist Charles Jennens envisaged as "a fine entertainment." This oratorio is unparalleled in its flow of glorious choruses and arias, along with dramatic touches that show the composer's theatrical flair.
Conductor Uwe Grodd realised this as did his choristers, more than atoning for the occasional tentativeness with an "And the Glory" that almost danced off the stage and a resounding final "Amen." Handel himself would have appreciated John Wells underlining the lively playing of Pipers Sinfonia with the might of the town hall organ.
Grodd warned us in his genial introduction of a few "nips and tucks" and, although we were denied the feeding of flocks in that celebrated duet, the momentum of this Messiah was unshakeable.
While Canadian soprano Cassandra Extavour could not be faulted for energy, she did not match the effortless legato and tonal beauty of mezzo Bianca Andrew, with her heartrending burst of ornamentation at the end of "He was despised."
