Auckland Choral Society Auckland at the Town Hall

By WILLIAM DART

The Auckland Choral Society has taken some admirable risks in its programme. Following Handel's Solomon and Honegger's King David earlier this year, Prokofiev's Alexander Nevsky turned up as the centrepiece of a Russian Spectacular.

Spectacle would eventually come, but, as a curtain-raiser, Borodin's Polovtsian Dances were sometimes tired in sound.

The women singers certainly responded enthusiastically to some luminous playing from the Auckland Philharmonia woodwind but, after all, they did have what is arguably the biggest tune of the night.

The altos, in particular, continued to make the most of all their moments, as did the orchestra under Peter Watts.

Rachmaninov's Second Piano Concerto is a crowd-pleaser. Conductor Watts and soloist Diedre Irons set well-measured tempi which allowed the music ample space to bloom.

Prokofiev's Alexander Nevsky is the ultimate epic, based on a score for Eisenstein's 1938 film designed to stir up patriotic fervour among Russians on the brink of World War II.

There were rough moments here and there, although in no way did they detract from one's involvement. We felt the agonies of oppressed Russia in the bleak opening number, our spirits were stirred by the great chorus of Arise, Ye Russian People, and the brilliant scene-setting of The Battle on the Ice, with its spectacular rushes of wind and strings, bedazzled. The hero's triumphant entry to Pskov, is a spectacular finale.

Occasionally, the choir struggled to be heard above the orchestral forces. But mezzo Helen Medlyn, singing The Field of the Dead, notched up another superlative performance. For too few minutes, she was a Russian Everywoman, singing Prokofiev's lament as if it had been written for her.