From the River to the Sea at the Auckland Town Hall

By WILLIAM DART

The Town Hall stage made for a spectacular sight on Saturday night. The women of the Auckland Choral Society were ranked along the back, the men on either side in the circle, while centre-stage there were three rows of youngsters from the Auckland Boys' Choir, the Auckland Girls' Choir and the Mt Roskill Children's Choir.

These forces were brought in, alas, for a dud of a work - Sir Andrzej Panufnik's Thames Pageant. Conductor Peter Watts promised us a piece that was historical and at the same time hysterical; only the first was achieved.

Lady Panufnik's "The Boat Race" had the young choristers waving flags for either Oxford or Cambridge.

All in all, it was as good a performance as the work deserved, especially from the youngsters, whose colonial vowels added a certain antipodean tang to "Pope's Weeping Willows".

Vaughan Williams' Sea Symphony needs no apology; it is a mighty score and one which brought hope and life to the conservative tradition of the English oratorio.

Watts drew a passionate response from all concerned, so much so from the Auckland Philharmonia that the voices were sometimes swamped. The opening flourish would have fitted nicely into the more robust pages of Strauss; the final bars were as the calmest of moorings.

The choir sang enthusiastically, although there was sometimes a feeling of rhythmic indecision. The sopranos were often uneasy at the top of their range; the men could have been a few degrees lustier.

Patricia Wright and Rodney Macann were the soloists. Wright lavished care on her long lines. Macann sang with his usual musicianship, especially in the seaside soliloquy of the second movement.