Review: Music for Good Friday by the Palmerston North Choral Society

Palmerston North Choral Society musical director Alison Stewart. Photo / Supplied

Music for Good Friday
Palmerston North Choral Society
St Peter's Church
Saturday, March 27
Reviewed by Judith Lacy

Much is made of Palmy's cultural diversity and you couldn't get more diverse than walking to a church to hear Latin be sung with the sound of roaring stockcars in your ears.

Confession: I'm not the right person to review a choral performance but those with the prerequisites were not available on Saturday night so I decided to approach it from an educational experience.

My first lesson was how many people enjoy this music with St Peter's Church nearly full - and not all the concertgoers were over 70. The hearty and lengthy applause at the end showed they had enjoyed the 60 minutes of music that tells of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and his mother Mary's sorrow.

While some of the music was by long-dead composers Bach, Handel and Mozart, there were also works of men still living, including Sir Karl Jenkins.

Welsh multi-instrumentalist and composer Jenkins' adaptation of 13th-century Latin poem Stabat Mater was a highlight. Sancta Mater (Holy Mother) with voice and organ was both uplifting and moving.

Jenkins' And the Mother Did Weep, also from Stabat Mater, was in English not Latin. You could almost feel the anguish of Mary and while the lyrics are repetitive, each was delivered differently and with skill.

The men singing Behold and See from Handel's Messiah provided a refreshing change of range and were particularly crisp.

The concert was a chance to reflect on the meaning of Easter for Christians. Yes, hot cross buns appear in supermarkets ridiculously early these days, but there is not the same hype for Easter as Christmas. However, Easter is the most important festival on the Christian calendar and the choral society's selection of music conveyed the intense emotions of Good Friday.

I prefer lyrics I can understand but there's always something spiritual about mass voices, especially such well-practised ones under the direction of Alison Stewart, and my right foot surprised me with its toe tapping. Closing my eyes intensified the experience of the about 50 voices.

It was fantastic to have someone of Douglas Mews' calibre on the organ; pipes of all sorts were going off in Palmy on Saturday night.

The choral society's next concert on June 26 featuring the music of New Zealand composers promises to be completely different. I'd like to see the names of all the chorus members listed in the programme then.