In our sports arenas, Sarah Court would have been hero of the match.
With less than 48 hours' notice, the Raglan mezzo took on Dvorak's Biblical Songs with Bach Musica NZ and gave one of the most memorable performances of this concert season.
The 25-minute cycle of unforced yet fervent psalm settings positively glowed in the original Czech, a bonus from the singer's post-graduate studies at Prague Conservatory.
Bach Musica audiences have enjoyed the mezzo's exquisitely measured Bach on more than one occasion, but tonight there was a new and astonishing viscerality, with Court's vibrant lower register and unimpeachably focused top complemented by some enchanting orchestral hues from Rita Paczian's players.
After interval there was the refreshing rarity of Schubert's A flat major Mass, with the grand choral tradition of Haydn and Mozart filtered through the sensibilities of the man who captured Goethe's Erlking in song.
Paczian let loose a veritable shout of joy in the Gloria - an attestation of full-voiced faith rivalled only by Bach's Magnificat - and energies never flagged. Another highlight was the powerfully dramatic Sanctus rounded off with a rollicking Osanna.
Morag Atchison, Jessica Wells, Henry Choo and Joel Amosa made a harmonious quartet of soloists; they had no arias but, coming in and out of the choral grandeur, they brought the finesse and intimacy of vocal chamber music.
What: Bach Musica NZ
Where: Auckland Town Hall
Reviewer: William Dart