NZSO Chamber Orchestra at the Town Hall Concert Chamber

By WILLIAM DART

One copes with the terminally flip ad agency titles that come with most musical events these days, but the NZSO Chamber Orchestra's Going for Baroque irritated.

Ironically, this concert was the NZSOCO's most satisfying this year.

With well sprung, rhythmically taut playing, this was music-making informed by the spirit of the dance. Buoyant Handel (Opus 6 no 1) launched the programme and, throughout the evening, the focus was often on the duelling violins of Donald Armstrong and Gregory Squire, each with his own individual character.

Nicely turned, idiomatic performances of Corelli's Christmas Concerto and La Follia, in a Geminiani arrangement, followed.

My only misgiving about the NZSOCO remains: this group lacks the tonal homogeneity that is a paramount requirement for a chamber orchestra. When only four violins play a line, unerring intonation is called for and it wasn't always there on Saturday.

This is difficult to achieve, without a full-time professional commitment to the orchestra: surviving on the generous coat-tails of the NZSO is not the solution.

Australian countertenor Graham Pushee proved an inspired soloist and made a major contribution to the concert, transforming Vivaldi's Cessate, omai Cessate into a gripping operatic scena. Emotions veered from anguish to anger and the orchestra spun a web of Vivaldian enchantment around him.

Two arias from Handel's Julius Caesar revealed Pushee the theatrical animal. Even in debonair tails with zany cummerbund, the countertenor's dramatic involvement made one imagine that he might have just struggled to shore in "Dall'ondoso periglio". Firing out recitative, occasionally clenching fists to make a point and then lulling us with incandescent lyricism, this was artistry of the highest order.

"Se infiorita" was a virtuoso turn of Olympian proportions. Pushee obviously enjoyed trading licks with Armstrong's solo violin and made the vocal fireworks of the closing pages seem effortless.

Sing me more and more and then some, I thought, taking liberties with the title of that old Billie Holiday song. There was, indeed, a short encore from Handel's Rinaldo, but everyone wanted more. Now that our taste has been whetted, we need another visit. And wouldn't it be wonderful to see an artist such as this on stage in an operatic production?