Bass Jonathan Eyres, and soprano Joanna Foote, with conductor Rita Paczian during the Bach Musica NZ concert at the Auckland Town Hall. Photo/ Peter Jennings
Bass Jonathan Eyres, and soprano Joanna Foote, with conductor Rita Paczian during the Bach Musica NZ concert at the Auckland Town Hall. Photo/ Peter Jennings
Rita Paczian has always been a woman on a mission — to remind us that there are choral alternatives to Handel’s Messiah at this time of the year. And so, she regularly schedules Bach’s Christmas Oratorio as a seasonal celebration for her Bach Musica NZ.
I could well imagine thathref="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/william-dart-review-bach-musica-at-the-auckland-town-hall/54GTTC6WUJGBNFRY35HVH56XAU/" rel="" title="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/william-dart-review-bach-musica-at-the-auckland-town-hall/54GTTC6WUJGBNFRY35HVH56XAU/"> its thrilling 2023 performance of the first three parts of this mammoth work left many impatient for tonight’s presentation of the remainder.
Bach’s buoyant opening chorus, underpinned by the gloriously pungent timbres of trumpets and oboes, set a template for the concert. The choristers’ spirit and enthusiasm would prove irrepressible, even when the final chorus was repeated as a rousing encore.
Bach Musica NZ concert at the Auckland Town Hall. Photo / Peter Jennings
For aficionados, the treat tonight was a quartet of first-rate soloists with the valued ability to illuminate Bach’s sometimes treacherous vocal pathways.
Australian tenor Henry Choo was a persuasive, warm-toned Evangelist, guiding the narrative in beautifully measured phrases and proving a subtly forceful presence in his final aria.
A short but vivid recitative from the young Jonathan Eyers led into a sonorous arioso with soprano Joanna Foote. One of our top sopranos, Foote has delivered exquisite Bach with this group before, as well as an outstanding Poulenc Gloria. Not surprisingly, she and oboist Alison Dunlop were elegant partners in a playful echo aria.
Eyers, a recent prize-winner in London’s Wigmore Hall/Bollinger International Song Competition, is a bass of remarkable ease and projection, in one aria effortlessly blending his voice with the autumnal tones of Dunlop’s oboe d’amore.
Alto Jessica Wells. Photo / Peter Jennings
How can one not marvel at the contrapuntal ingenuity of a trio pitting three soloists against Miranda Hutton’s busy violin obligato? Here, the cool assurance of alto Jessica Wells, having already impressed in her solo aria, was an admirable anchor for the florid flutterings surrounding her.
No music more typifies joy than that of the high Baroque and Bach represents the Baroque at its highest. This we heard in the shining trumpet of Orson Paine, with his exhilarating contributions to the evening’s final chorus.
