On track: Lively contribution to joyous occasion

By WILLIAM DART

Hummel is fast becoming flavour of the year. The latest tasting is provided by a new Naxos recording of the composer's Missa Solemnis, and double Kiwi credits are due with this recording.

First, for the performances by Tower Voices New Zealand, the NZSO and local soloists under the inspired baton of Uwe Grodd.

Second, the score was published by Allan Badley's Arataria Press, which has made the sort of international inroads that would receive national coverage if Badley's business was produce or software.

Don't be misled by the Solemnis. This Mass was written for a wedding and much of it is joyous and life-affirming. Grodd keeps orchestra and choir fully fired and the sound is positively sumptuous.

The four soloists (Patricia Wright, Zan McKendree-Wright, Patrick Power and David Griffiths) appear in the Sanctus, joining forces for some lovely quartet work, particularly when Wright leads the Hosanna in excelsis.

The Mass is introduced by a shortish Te Deum which, if possible, is even more lively, revealing Tower Voices New Zealand as a choral force to reckon with internationally.

James Judd is a proven Elgarian - his 1990 recording of the First Symphony with the Halle Orchestra is up there with the best. Now, with the NZSO, he is delving into Elgar's later career with the two Wand of Youth suites, thoughtful revisitings of childhood compositions, and the 1930 Nursery Suite, written for the young Windsor princesses during Elgar's retirement.

Although the sound sometimes seems unduly muffled and there are a few unchecked minor blemishes in the playing, this is graceful and affectionate music-making, with a tangible sense of the nostalgic.

Significantly, Judd takes many cues from the composer's 1928 interpretations, particularly in the volatile surges of the Straussian Overture, but not so slavishly as to emulate Elgar's swooping portamenti.

Of course you can't judge a CD by its cover, but both releases have extensive programme notes and striking cover illustrations. The Hummel features an 18th-century Mexican image of Christ, the Elgar a Richard Doyle fairy painting in which the butterfly-drawn carriage could well be flying over a New Zealand colonial landscape.

* Hummel, Missa Solemnis (Naxos 8.557193)

Elgar, The Wand of Youth (Naxos 8.557166)