For those who feel that the tangos of Astor Piazzolla are too often relegated to encore status, Bach Music NZ undertook a welcome rehabilitation, opening tonight's concert with two of the Argentinian's attractive and shortish pieces.
Accordionist Stephanie Poole and the strings of the orchestra tugged at our heartstrings, playingthe composer's tribute to his late father, Adios Nonino, exquisitely so in the sweet duetting of the deft-fingered soloist with Paul Mitchell's cello.
Piazzolla's Escolaso was livelier, and Elizabeth Lau's baton ensured that all kept in line with Caleb Goldsmith's Latin percussion, while encouraging dramatic passions to bloom in its middle section.
Elizabeth Lau's baton ensured that all was kept in line.
A homegrown symphonic premiere is not to be sniffed at these days, although Gabor Tolnay's Symphonie 2019 was couched in an extremely conservative language for the 21st century.
Lau pursued Tolnay's symphonic arguments with commendable tenacity, although the laboured repetitions of the piece's opening four notes grew wearisome. Early on, familiar harmonic sequences that proved resonantly effective on strings did not fare so well with brass.
Sprightly woodwind injected high spirits into a dancing second movement while the finale's sonorous textures, piled up over timpani, revealed an area that the composer might have further explored.
Soloist Elisha Hulton was in fine form.
After the interval, Lau's choral expertise made for a stirring account of Maurice Duruflé's 1947 Requiem.
Rarely heard live, especially in this full orchestral version that was its composer's favourite, this is a score of unimpeachable sincerity and devotion, although choir and orchestra let loose with some tumultuously thrilling peals of "Hosanna". The choral weave, echoing the timelessness of Gregorian chant, was neatly and subtly achieved, with soloists Robert Tucker and Elisha Hulton in excellent form.
Tucker, who, two years ago, played a memorably mad George III for New Zealand Opera, impressed in an authoritative "Hostias", with finessed tone and compelling projection. Hulton, in her more contemplative "Pie Jesu", made every note count emotionally, ending with a diminuendo bordering on the daring.
