Concert Preview: Bach Musica at Holy Trinity Cathedral

Bach Musica NZ. Photo / Supplied.

Rita Paczian, the almost unstoppable energy source behind Auckland's Bach Musica, looks back on 2010 as "a wonderful year".

While tomorrow's performance of Bach's Christmas Oratorio sees Paczian and her musicians signing off for the year, she stresses that they have moved away from being a Baroque choir and orchestra to a more all-embracing ensemble.

"If we have a special place in the scheme of things it is because we are the only performance group in the country that consists of an orchestra and a choir doing orchestral and choral repertoire."

There is something of the musical magpie to this woman. Look at any Bach Musica brochure or visit its website and you will find "NZ Premiere" against the occasional listing; and sometimes the works in question are centuries old.

Thanks to Paczian, we got to hear a Requiem by the Russian Taneyev in 2008 as well as obscure music from the Bach family. This year, Bach Musica offered the first performances of John Rutter's Mass of the Children in its full orchestral version, as well as Paczian and Dmitry Rusakov's orchestration of the Rachmaninov Vespers.

"Next year, we are featuring two recently discovered Masses by Schumann and Biber," Paczian says.

"I heard the Schumann Mass in C minor, one of his last works, at this year's Schleswig-Holstein Festival. It's a magnificent score, much bigger than his Requiem.

"And this and Biber's Missa Bruxellensis, which was also recently discovered, will be Southern Hemisphere premieres."

Paczian is also pleased with the reception of the "Andre Rieu-type Valentine's concerts", which she set up last year.

"Many of the 550 people who came said they didn't really like classical music but, because I lightened it up and included some arranged Beatles and so on, it brought the house down."

Bach Musica's 2011 season opens with such a programme on February 20 with Gina Sanders and Christoph von Weitzel presenting a "Day in Vienna" with the music of Mozart, Schubert, Strauss and Lehar.

One completely new departure for Bach Musica is August's "Jazz Meets Classical" concert, involving Waiheke-based jazz pianist John Mackay. "Like a lot of other classical music followers, I'm a bit of a jazz fan," Paczian says.

"I've always felt there's a certain affinity between the two, especially between jazz and Bach.

"John and his trio will play their own music, with the choir behind them, while we'll do music ranging from some Swingle Singers arrangements to a Shostakovich Jazz Suite. John's also arranged two of the Preludes and Fugues from The Well-Tempered Clavier for the choir."

Tomorrow Bach Musica performs the first three parts of Bach's Christmas Oratorio, which Paczian has no hesitation in describing as her all-time Christmas favourite. Her favourite moment? "The opening eight bars. It's an amazing start with the timpani, lots of trumpet and all those running semiquavers."

Paczian is pleased with her line-up of soloists: soprano Gina Sanders, mezzo Sarah Court, tenor John Murray and bass Daniel O'Connor - all of whom are well qualified to sing Bach as he should be sung: "You need to understand not only the text but Bach's structure of phrasing."

It is little surprise, too, that the Christmas Oratorio will be delivered in the original German. Paczian makes it clear there is no alternative.

"Bach's music is written for that language and closely tailored to the words. If you use English, it simply doesn't fit."

Performance:

What: Bach Musica
Where and when: Holy Trinity Cathedral, tomorrow at 5pm