What: Auckland Choral
Where: Auckland Town Hall
When: Sunday
Reviewer: William Dart
It is difficult to imagine a concert-going December without an Auckland Choral Messiah.
William Dart: Auckland Choral’s Messiah
Conductor Uwe Godd with the Auckland Choral.
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We missed out on Handel’s oratorio last year, thanks to the pandemic, and its welcome return in this first of two performances drew a full and enthusiastic house.
Uwe Grodd’s lively greeting from the stage has become almost as much of a tradition as the music that follows. The conductor invariably places what we are about to hear within the context of our time; today he hoped that this “oldest story of Mankind” might bring us peace.
After a sprightly overture from a spruce Pipers Sinfonia, young Emmanuel Fonoti-Fuimaono set the scene with a strong, well-projected tenor, followed by the full choral heft of “And the Glory”.
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Although one was sometimes distracted by wan soprano tone in the upper register, Grodd’s choristers responded heartily to Handel’s monumental grandeur and enjoyed the almost conversational to-and-fro of the composer’s counterpoint.
“Glory to God” was doubly thrilling with trumpeter Huw Dann in the choir ranks, and could one sense a special feeling of celebration in the “Hallelujah Chorus” after last year’s silencing?
While choruses were often boosted by the power and resonant bass of Michael Bell’s town hall organ, John Wells wove elegant continuo lines on chamber organ and harpsichord.
Soprano Joanna Foote and baritone James Harrison deputised magnificently at short notice for two indisposed soloists.
Harrison took on Handel’s raging nations with imposing fury and, after a beautifully pointed recitative, teamed up eloquently with Huw Dann in “The trumpet shall sound”.
Joanna Foote’s effortless ornamentation in “I know that my redeemer liveth” had lost none of its charm from her performance two years ago.
Kate Webber’s lustrous alto proved commendably agile in a less familiar setting of “Thou art gone up on high” while I was sorry that her exquisite “He was despised” did not have its expected repeat.
