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Handel's Messiah is the ultimate hardy perennial of the choral repertoire. It has the familiarity, number by number, of a popular Broadway show. It has survived the tampering hands of Mozart, as well as the grandiloquent baton of Sir Thomas Beecham. More recently, arias have been crooned by Sarah Vaughan and Stevie Wonder, with choruses even given a rap turnaround.
Not so in Auckland, with full-scale performances of the work by Bach Musica and Auckland Choral.
Bach Musica's director Rita Paczian speaks fervently on the power of the great Handelian choruses.
She remembers, as a child, "being stunned by the Hallelujah Chorus and some other tunes" and, after a mammoth nine-hour rehearsal session last weekend, admits she wasn't able to get the tunes out of her head.
"These choruses are interesting for listeners and performers," she says. "The tunes are really memorable and they are a challenge to the singers, from the coloratura writing in For Unto Us a Child is Born to those nasty intervals in And With His Stripes."
For half of Paczian's choir, Messiah is a new experience. "We've a number of younger members who haven't sung it yet," she says.
"They've heard it, but had to learn it from scratch. The older members are glad to do it properly, as they say, rather than participate in a 'Sing-In' which has become a bit of an Auckland tradition."
With chamber choir and orchestra, Paczian aligns herself with the Back-to-Baroque performance traditions. There is no compromise for a woman tired of what she describes as "huge long wallowings".
"The authentic Baroque style is perfect for the Hallelujah Chorus which has been shouted for hundreds of years, as loud as possible. And, in the final choral Amen, unless you bring that fugue out lightly, it is just a jungle of noisy sound."
Among the four soloists - Anna Cors, Kate Spence, John Murray and Grant Dickson - Paczian points out that the husband-and-wife team of Cors and Murray have sung Messiah all over Europe, including two outdoors performances in Jerusalem in front of thousands of people, one of the most unforgettable experiences of their lives.
Just over a week later, Auckland Choral takes over the Town Hall for two nights with its Messiah, continuing a tradition that has been continuous since 1857.
Peter Watts, Auckland Choral's music director, remembers Handel's oratorio as a boy in England, including a grand Royal Albert Hall performance. For him, it is simply, "one of those pieces you've always known".
"It has a fantastic consistency, musically and in the development of its ideas," he says. "That development from Christmas through to Easter and the Resurrection is something I find satisfying. And, although I'm working with a secular choir in a secular concert, the spiritual side is very important to me."
Coming back to it, year after year, he finds himself reassessing the words every bit as much as the music. "As I get older I'm thinking more about making the music serve the text, especially in the difficult choruses with tricky dotted rhythms."
Watts' Messiah has new soprano and mezzo soloists in Madeleine Pierard and Wendy Dawn Thompson, alongside a familiar male team of Kenneth Cornish and David Griffiths. All this and the hundred-plus voices of Auckland Choral.
While some purists might bewail the large choral forces, Watts is not concerned.
"Big choirs have always been a part of Handel's oratorios and I don't think that's at all inconsistent with trying to get into the Baroque style."
Performances
* What: Handel's Messiah with Bach Musica
* Where and when: Holy Trinity Cathedral, Sun 5pm
* What: Handel's Messiah with Auckland Choral
* Where and when: Auckland Town Hall, Mon Dec 18 & Tue Dec 19, 7.30pm
