Two treats for the season

Rita Paczian has found her role in music. Photo / Supplied

Tomorrow afternoon, Rita Paczian signs off another successful year for the singers and instrumentalists of her Bach Musica with a performance of Monteverdi's Christmas Vespers.

Trained as an organist in her native Germany, the appeal of the baton proved irresistible. "I loved being in charge, not only technically but psychologically," she explains. "You have to win people over to get the best out of them."

A sports background - Paczian is a professional tennis coach - has meant "no problems with co-ordination", she says. This is a woman whose ideal on the podium is to seem like a dancer rather than a police officer stiffly directing traffic.

"Organ playing was a lonely affair," Paczian muses. "Once you've come into contact with the orchestral repertoire, all those symphonies and concertos, organ music seems rather dull by comparison."

Despite being one of the top conducting students in Germany and being selected to participate in masterclasses with Leonard Bernstein and Helmuth Rilling, she soon realised she was taking on "a totally male-dominated world ... I would apply for a job and not get so much as a reply because I was a woman. Suddenly my eyes were opened."

New Zealand, she adds, proved much more "with it"; she has been at the helm of Bach Musica since 1994.

While Paczian might not go as far as to suggest that a woman conductor could have advantages over the male variety of the species, she does admit that being a woman has perhaps led her to adopt a slightly less analytical approach.

"Sometimes I like to approach the music through the sound," she explains.

"I let the work make an impression on me before I analyse the score and decide on any technical issues."

Tomorrow's performance of Monteverdi's Christmas Vespers is a first for the city, Paczian says proudly, following on from Bach Musica's 2004 concert of the composer's more famous Vespers of 1610.

She admits the Christmas Vespers is "a little bit in the shadow of the 1610 work" but captivates when she describes how Monteverdi's often fragmented, sectional score "needs so much work running through each section to bring out the best in each voice part, shaping and phrasing the music ... if this is not properly phrased and played in Baroque style, it can be deadly."

Paczian's obvious love of this score makes me impatient for Sunday afternoon as she singles out and enthuses over its second movement, a setting of Confitebor tibi Domine, which will feature soprano Jayne Tankersley against echoing chorus, in dancing, almost folksong-like music.

Bach Musica's activities are not limited to its popular concerts at Holy Trinity; Paczian also takes conducting classes and organises events in Morton House and Rannoch, under the auspices of her patrons, Morton Estate Wines and James Wallace.

On Thursday, German baritone Hans-Georg Wimmer, with Australian pianist Stephen Emmerson perform Schumann's Dichterliebe and a selection of songs and arias at Rannoch, capitalising on Wimmer's successful Schubert Winterreise this year.

"Hans-Georg and I met by accident on the Sunshine Coast," Paczian laughs. "He sang in Bach's Christmas Oratorio with my choir and, when my alto soloist was sick on the day of the performance, he sang her arias, without rehearsal and 10 times more beautifully than she would have done."

James Wallace is just as much a hero in Paczian's eyes, his generous patronage providing "not only funds, but advice, the use of his wonderful Rannoch and contacts when I had to get new directors on the Bach Musica board."

Winterreise would seem to be the pre-Christmas treat you deserve.

It may be $90 a ticket, but, as well as a superb Liederabend, you get wine, buffet supper and the chance to see Wallace's legendary art collection.

Performance

What: Bach Musica - Monteverdi Vespers
Where and when: Holy Trinity Cathedral, tomorrow at 2pm

What: Dichterliebe, with Hans-Georg Wimmer
Where and when: Rannoch, Almorah Rd, Epsom, Thursday at 8pm, details from (09) 524 5594 or abcsociety@xtra.co.nz