Bach Musica New Zealand at St Matthew-in-the-City

Reviewed by WILLIAM DART

The fact that Bach Musica New Zealand opened this year's season with Haydn's The Seven Last Words is cause enough for rejoicing; mounting a relatively obscure choral work such as this and bringing in a generous-sized and supportive audience merits a major celebration.

This is hardly your standard choral repertoire and indeed, most of the available recordings feature string quartet - Haydn left five versions of the score, including one for orchestra and another for solo keyboard.

Back in 1785, the composer's original commission was for a set of meditative instrumental pieces to accompany a Lenten service at Cadiz Cathedral. Fifteen years later, inspired by the oratorios of Handel and spurred on by the specially written texts of Baron van Swieten, the same man who encouraged Mozart's fugal endeavours, it became an oratorio.

Haydn's relentless procession of slow movements, clocking in at a mere 70 minutes, exerts a cumulative power all of its own, a power well understood by conductor Rita Paczian.

Even with limited resources, particularly on the instrumental side, where violins and horns were a cause for some concern, she produced a magnificent body of sound. The chorus of 40-plus needed no apology, however, apart from a passing panic in the seventh of the settings. Finely balanced when singing a cappella, fervent of voice when the orchestra was alongside them, these choristers provided the heart of the performance.

When orchestra and chorus combined their energy and enthusiasm in the final "Il Terremoto" (The Earthquake), the result was appropriately earth-shattering.

The four soloists (Joanna Heslop, Shelagh Molyneux, Dmitri Roussakov and Ian Campbell) were a harmonious quartet, with the lustrous-voiced Molyneux an outstanding soloist. Tenor Roussakov eloquently introduced the fifth setting with Christ's own words, and duetted effectively with Heslop in the seventh.

Paczian did not let us forget the world that is raging outside. We were asked to remain quiet for a short time at the end of the concert and consider the catastrophe in Iraq. With the chorus' closing image of the blood-stained earth, Haydn's work suddenly had a chilling relevance.