Auckland Choral Society at the Auckland Town Hall

By WILLIAM DART

The Auckland Choral Society has been giving the city its annual Messiah for nigh on 150 years, a point noted by music director Peter Watts in the programme for the choir's latest instalment.

It is's an event that Watts sees as fulfilling three functions: a bit of Christmas tradition, a significant spiritual experience, and a good night of music.

As far as the music goes, the unique beauties of the score are there for all to hear - after all, Beethoven himself copied out some of Handel's choruses as models for his own writing.

Watts conveyed this from the first well-sprung bars of the Overture, sensitively played by the Pipers Sinfonia.

During the evening minor blemishes on the orchestral side, or indeed with the choir, retreated into the background, such was the energy being given out to an appreciative, almost capacity audience.

Singing popular choruses such as And the Glory and the Hallelujah chorus from memory, the choir was as robust as it was rhythmically alert.

For unto us a Child is Born invoked seasonal joy, there was a beautifully measured step to Surely He hath Borne our Griefs and a well-knitted ensemble was at the core of And with His Stripes .

Of the four soloists, mezzo Kate Spence was outstanding.

Her big aria, He was Despised was impressively sustained with tasteful ornamentation and impeccable diction in the outer sections, coupled with dramatic fervour when Christ is subjected to humiliations in one of the oratorio's most chilling moments.

Although I have a guilty fondness for scenery chewing in that great bass aria Why do the Nations, James Harrison's finely modulated voice opted for a more subtle approach, an approach which also served him well in the chromatic lines of The People that Walked in Darkness.

Tenor Shaun Dixon was nimble of voice in negotiating some of the composer's more testing passages and, although there were perilous moments with ornamentation, gave a solid performance.

Katherine Wiles, more subdued than usual, was at her most convincing in the aria Rejoice greatly.

James Tibbles' continuo work proved a model of discretion, and Rachael Griffiths-Hughes drew some lovely sounds out of the sometimes recalcitrant town hall organ.