Review: New Zealand Youth Choir at the Auckland Town Hall

The National Youth Choir departs on an international tour today. Photo / Grant Armishaw

Auckland rallied in force to farewell the New Zealand Youth Choir on the eve of a tour that will take it from Singapore, Seoul and Australia to Shanghai's World Expo.

A welcoming karanga introduced Renaissance magnificence as Ugolini's Quae est ista was delivered by three sonorous groups, on stage and from either side of the circle above.

Conductor Karen Grylls is a wonder, celebrating the occasion by changing her jacket at interval so that gold lapels and cuffs were replaced by ming blue. Her gestures, from matter-of-fact nod and mere tremor of the fingers to huge arm swings, always brought out the precise sounds required.

Grylls searches the globe for music and on Saturday the Scandinavians came out tops. Grete Pedersen's Jesu gjor meg stille cushioned a broad, lyrical melody in a sonic filigree provided by individual singers, spaced out over two levels, doing their own thing.

Karin Rehnqvist's agreeably bucolic I Himmelen presented keening cow-calls, jangling bells and devout congregational singing with nothing but 46 spruce voices.

Other exotica included Stephen Leek's Kondalilla, dealing out rainforest birdsong in an explosion of consonants while the bop-fuelled textures of Giles Swayne's Magnificat recalled the From Scratch music of Phil Dadson.

The more conservative Cantus Gloriosus by Jozef Swider revealed the technical fibre of the choir, as strings of Hallelujahs rang out effortlessly across, over and around one another.

The choir also revealed what lay in its ambassadorial satchel for the trip, including a commission from Anthony Ritchie. His finely crafted response to Jenny Bornholdt's This sea we cross over, evoked a deceptively smooth surface, its perilous rhythmic undercurrents fearlessly navigated by the singers.

This year, Te Reo offerings were singularly impressive.

The creation myth soared to life in Whanau Wehi's I Te Timatanga with intricate choralography, poi, staffs, unbridled haka and lapping lyricism, its two accompanying guitars reconciling the worlds of Paco Pena and Maori strum.

For an encore, the choristers, dispersed around the hall, undertook a lingeringly beautiful improvisation on Richard Puanaki's Ka Waiata.

Predictably, it was a spellbinder and will doubtless prove so again on tour.

What: New Zealand Youth Choir.

Where: Auckland Town Hall.

When: Saturday.