Auckland Choral at Holy Trinity Cathedral

1.00pm - Reviewed by WILLIAM DART

Handel's Dettingen Te Deum is one of the more splendiferous specimens of High Baroque ceremonial music, written to celebrate George II's leading his troops to victory over the French in 1743.

Spread across the expanse of the Holy Trinity Cathedral, Auckland Choral, Tauranga Civic Choir and Pipers Sinfonia could have been the forces performing for the English monarch in the Chapel Royal all those years ago, although, back then, the choral numbers would not have been quite so overwhelming.

Overwhelming in number, but not always in volume, the Auckland and Tauranga choristers took to their Handelian task with remarkable enthusiasm, and there were sections in which conductor Peter Watts drew a rich, sonorous tone from them. Too often, however, especially with shorter note values, the sound could be disturbingly thin.

Even from my vantage point of a seat in the second row, mezzo Anne Lamont-Low seemed reserved. Glenese Blake's resilient soprano was the most effective of the soloists, although too often the singer seemed to be striving for a tempo that was a little more relaxed than that which the conductor was determined to set.

A superbly delivered trio (Lamont-Low joined by Peter de Blois and Martin Elliott) was a portent of even finer ensembles to come in Mozart's Requiem.

Overall, the Requiem was given the more convincing performance, even with the liability of lamentably rough playing from the strings of the Pipers Sinfonia, most joltingly when violins joined in the Recordare.

Still, Watts kept tempi brisk, which was to everyone's good. Fugal writing was not exactly pellucid, but it had drive, and my only deep concerns were with what sounded like pitched shouting in the Confutatis and an over-jaunty Domine Jesu.

All four soloists were extremely creditable, although Martin Elliott, more baritone than bass, was not quite at ease in the sepulchral depths of Tuba Mirum, where Mozart uses similarly cruel leaps to those he demands of Fiordiligi in Cosi fan Tutte.

An acknowledgment is also due to Leonard Cave, whose fluent and finessed continuo work on chamber organ was a constant and consistent joy to the ear.