Reviews on NZYC’s performance with the Rolling Stones at Mt Smart Stadium, Saturday, 22 November

3 News: “The encore break was mercifully short considering the cold temperature, and it was broken in the loveliest way possible – with the New Zealand Youth Choir singing ‘You Can’t Always Get What You Want’. That together with ‘Satisfaction’ formed a nicely epic one-two punch to end the night on.”

The Sydney Morning Herald: “The New Zealand Youth Choir joined in for You Can’t Always Get What You Want – a special moment on a night when the local air was filled with songs and the age of everyone on stage was just something to talk about later. After 50 years, the Rolling Stones look like they’re having more fun than ever.”

Times Online: “The New Zealand Youth Choir, highlighted on stage, gave an admirable introduction to You Can’t Always Get What You Want, followed immediately by the finale Satisfaction that brought the show to a close – with fireworks, of course.” (Tony King)

Elsewhere: “And whether it was ticking off the classics – Jumping Jack Flash, Sympathy for the Devil and Brown Sugar in the closing overs – or bringing on the New Zealand Youth Choir for the choral part on You Can’t Always Get What You Want, this was a night of great rock’n’roll entertainment . . . with some glam’n’glitz jackets on Jagger.”

New Zealand Herald: “With a high-calorie Brown Sugar dusted off, it was back for the encores, a grand You Can’t Always Get What You Want came enhanced by the New Zealand Youth Choir (ancient anthems a speciality clearly).”

New Zealand Herald’s Luana Prictor interview: Luana Prictor is high on the excitement of singing with the Rolling Stones in front of more than 36,000 people. Luana Prictor said the concert was run like clockwork. The 22-year-old Auckland soprano is a member of the New Zealand Youth Choir, which backed the Stones for one of their encore songs, You Can’t Always Get What You Want, at Saturday night’s concert at Mt Smart Stadium.

Prictor – the daughter of Pauline Prictor, nee Yandall, a member of popular 1970s group the Yandall Sisters – said she was pleased with how the choir sang. “It was incredibly exciting. To be honest, I haven’t really processed it in my mind. It was quite surreal. “Everything was very hush-hush and security everywhere. Then you go out on stage and there’s thousands and thousands of people.”

Prictor said the concert was run like clockwork. “They were incredibly efficient. We rehearsed with the musical director beforehand, then they took us up for a sound-check. That was the only opportunity we got to see the band. There was no partying afterwards, unfortunately.”

TVNZ ‘Breakfast’ interview on Monday 24th November – Click here

In a nutshell, as the Festival brochure put it, Ata Reira promised an evening of award-winning choirs, majestic voices and Te Reo Maori in song.

Both separately and together, Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir and the New Zealand Youth Choir delivered all this in a choral celebration of light … and much more. From the start, Paul Lim’s imaginative lighting added so much, with shifting colours and intensities complementing the singers’ groupings and re-groupings for a selection of music spanning 14 centuries.

The dramatic launch involved a medieval chant from the processing choristers gradually diffusing and clustering around a karanga sung by Natasha Wilson; yes, we were definitely in Aotearoa New Zealand in 2015.

A generous booklet offered printed lyrics and background information, as well as making important connections, such as the various settings that shared the same text.

The opening, Stars by Latvian Eriks Esenvalds, was introduced with the unworldly sound of vibrating wine glasses, an ethereal soundcloud floating above the rich sonorities of the Voices NZ singers, conducted by Karen Grylls.

Other musical responses to light included Eric Whitacre’s Lux Aurumque, in which resonant harmonies frayed into shimmering haze, and the almost pointillistic scat textures of Mason Bates’ Observer in the Magellanic Cloud.

More conservative music would come later, with Bob Chilcott’s Canticles of Light stunningly delivered but a banal piece of writing, its laboriously paced three movements separated by sententious chimes.

At the end of the concert, the singers enjoyed David Hamilton’s Ecce Beatam Lucem, a hearty extrovert piece in a genre that this New Zealand composer does so well.

A highlight for me was Murray Schafer’s 1969 Epitaph for Moonlight, a freeform colouristic adventure, responding to onomatopoeic words for moonlight (my favourites were “malooma” and “sheelesk”).

For five enchanted minutes, conductor David Squire seemed to be a painter in sound, his gestures bringing forth luscious sweeps, cries and sighs.

The other high point was specially commissioned Waerenga-a-Hika by Tuirina Wehi, effortlessly combining the jive of kapa haka with a stirring melody that Puccini would have been proud to have written.

What: Ata Reira

Where and when: Auckland Town Hall, Wednesday

Reviewer: William Dart

Please click here for the original review

German conductor Eckehard Stier guided the APO and two choirs through the expressive textures of Michael Tippett’s A Child of Our Time .

With inspired singing from Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir and the New Zealand Youth Choir, Stier presented Tippett’s testament of hope. Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra’s presentation of Michael Tippett’s A Child of Our Time was the homegrown highlight of our 2015 Auckland Arts Festival.

We were welcomed first with Arvo Part’s Silouan’s Song, its austerely tonal chorale illuminated by sonorous strings.

The full orchestra then dispensed Messiaen’s Hymne au Saint-Sacrement, a vivid compendium of the Frenchman’s compositional ploys. Conductor Eckehard Stier effortlessly moved from dreamscapes to marches, with their brilliant splashes of saturated colour.

Tippett’s 1944 oratorio is made of sterner stuff. For the composer it was a Passion in the Bach mould , “not of a god-man, but of man whose god has left the light of the heavens for the dark of the collective unconscious”.

One of the great humanistic statements of its century, its plea for peace and tolerance is even more potent today, in a world plagued by violence and genocide.

With inspired singing from Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir and the New Zealand Youth Choir, Stier presented Tippett’s testament of hope.

The young choristers were admirably lithe in flying contrapuntal flurries, and richly expressive in the punctuating spirituals. One felt the intended anger of Go Down, Moses, even through an exquisite pianissimo.

The orchestra clearly enjoyed the combat of gnarly textures, some with those rhythms Aaron Copland playfully claimed as American. Details entranced, too, as when two intertwining flutes introduced the Interludum.

A quartet of fine soloists was dominated by charismatic soprano Indra Thomas and tenor Nicky Spence. Thomas was a force of nature, holding her score out of sight for one thrilling phrase and adding the glow of exhilaration to spirituals.

Spence similarly engaged us, poignantly relating the frustration of being between hammer and anvil over subtle Latin-tinged rhythms.

Victoria Simmonds’ sense of style ensured phrasing of distinction in lines that did not always escape the orchestral surround.

Derek Welton brought a relaxed gravitas as the Narrator but was slightly wanting in dramatic focus towards the end.

These are minor quibbles, however, and if you missed this inspirational concert live, do tune in to Radio New Zealand Concert tonight to hear it.

What: A Child of Our Time
Where and when: Auckland Town Hall, Saturday

Click here to read the original review

Originally aired on Upbeat, Monday 23 March 2015

Peter reviews the Auckland Festival production of Tippet’s Child of Our Time performed by the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, Voices NZ and the NZ Youth Choir.

Click to the link below to find the Radio New Zealand Concert podcast.

Listen here

REVIEW: Spirit of Anzac

New Zealand Symphony Orchestra conducted by Benjamin Northey with Madeleine Pierard (soprano), George Henare (narrator), New Zealand Youth Choir.
Music by Copland, Williams, Ledger and Vaughan Williams.
Michael Fowler Centre, Wellington, April 22
Reviewed by John Button.

This is the third time the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra has marked the importance of Anzac Day with a concert and, thankfully, on the 100th anniversary of Gallipoli, a sizeable audience was in attendance. And they were very well rewarded, as this concert was centred on two new works – one New Zealand, one Australian – of real quality and power.

Michael Williams’ Symphony No.1 ‘Letters from the Front’ is a cleverly constructed three movement work that interweaves spoken texts from letters by Williams’ great-grandfather with sung texts. Musically the work is tonal but without a single hint of triteness; beautifully scored, very powerful with a cumulative impact that made a deep impression.

Those who have experienced Williams’ Juniper Passion (Atoll ACD 243) would not have been surprised by the strength and immediacy of Williams’ invention, and would have been delighted by the playing of the NZSO, the singing of Madeleine Pierard and the beautifully nuanced narration of George Henare.

Australian composer James Ledger’s War Games was similarly impressive. Opening with soft percussion – bass drum, tapped brass mouthpieces – this work builds to a ferocious climax before settling back for brief moment of reflection. The second part, much sparer, has the texts of a poem by Paul Kelly sung by a choir of young singers. Stunningly written, and exquisitely sung, this ‘epilogue’ made an indelible impression.

These two superb works were bookended by Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man and Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis, each perfectly appropriate to the occasion.

Review from Stuff website

Last Thursday’s Spirit of Anzac concert came with transtasman connections, being played by Sydney Symphony Orchestra a day before the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra delivered it to us.

Two new commissions showed appropriate courage and faith with Michael Williams responding well to the particular demands of public commemoration in his Symphony No 1 Letters from the Front.

Both Williams and Australian James Ledger blended music with text, spoken and sung.

Letters from Williams’ great-grandfather and others were movingly read by George Henare, sometimes in ironic contrast with the music behind.

While the concept was a good one, there were problems in its fulfilment.

Henare’s texts were sometimes clouded by the clash of microphone and acoustic. In one climactic passage, both he and soprano Madeleine Pierard, singing a sensitive setting of Wilfred Owen’s Arms and the Boy, struggled to be heard.

Here was the perfect justification for surtitles; words were printed in the programme but it is difficult to take one’s eyes off this charismatic singer, who, against a silent orchestra, carried the symphony to its poetic close.

Conductor Benjamin Northey showed consummate skill and sympathy. In a fairly fragmented score, he took care to frame telling interludes as if they were cinematic flashbacks to a golden tonal past.

James Ledger’s War Music took 20 minutes for its first movement to travel from brooding mysteries to full symphonic fury, with the musicians easily meeting the Australian’s directives of “bellicose and vehement.”

Less belligerent, shorter and more affecting was the following movement in which the New Zealand Youth Choir added a skilfully layered setting of Paul Kelly’s words, powerfully linking past and present, war and peace.

Tonight was not all Antipodean contemporary.

We were welcomed with Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man and farewelled with a gloriously rich Tallis Fantasia by Vaughan Williams. Its hymn tune positively glowed with fervour as it passed around the many orchestral configurations, including poignant solo contributions led by Julia Joyce and Yuka Eguchi.

Best of all, tonight, on Anzac Day itself, at 8, Radio New Zealand Concert is allowing the whole country to hear Spirit of Anzac from its Wellington performance.

What: New Zealand Symphony Orchestra
Where: Auckland Town Hall, Thursday

– NZ Herald

Reviewed by William Dart

Click here for the original review.

… The second part depicted the horror and grief of war: the choral element called up music of a very different character from that in Part I; it had an impact that was moving and awakened a real emotional response. The youth choir’s participation and its music turned the work in a direction in which music can be more successful than words, the setting of a poem by Paul Kelly, of admirable simplicity and directness: its last two lines, poignant and unaffected: “Remember us, we died in smoke / We died in noise, we died alone”. The words, unless one was reading the words in the programme, rather escaped attention for they were not very clear but their force emerged through the music they inspired from the composer. The choir’s performance was extremely beautiful, suggesting the most careful and sensitive rehearsal under David Squire and the evening’s conductor.

Click here for the full review

What: New Zealand Youth Choir

Where: St Lukes Church, Rotorua

When: Thursday 15 February 2018

Rotorua was fortunate to have such a renowned choir, here for workshops and concerts.Over the years the choir has won many awards for its musical precision and expression in imaginatively-chosen programmes. Their skills and training have let them achieve splendidly in a variety of styles and techniques, with complex harmonies.We heard them for ourselves in a venue with fine acoustics, from among diverse works, how their successes have come through wide-ranging vocal strengths, marked by freshness and disciplined exuberance.The choir has had a succession of distinguished conductors, and the present one, David Squire, assisted by Michael Stewart, got impressive results from the singers through clear and stimulating gestures.The choir opened by encircling the audience for ‘Flame’ by Ben Parry, an arresting performance rising in intensity and involvement. ‘Autumn’ by Denzel Panama, a member of the choir, had its world premiere.It was striking for the way it mixed tones, chants and textures and with the colour and structure of a mature composer.‘Waerenga-a-Hika’ by Tuirina Wehi was notable for the depth of feeling it created by adroitly blending melody, chant and haka.The fervent cast of two spirituals made a fitting end to a marvelous concert.
Hanno Fairburn

World-Renowned Choral Director Hands on Baton

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