In 2014 Bach Musica NZ opened its season with Bach’s St John Passion and tonight the same work launched this year’s concerts — which sign off in December with the same composer’s Christmas Oratorio.
The audience’s enthusiasm was captured from the opening chorus, in which Rita Paczian made it clearthat this would be an evening of high energy and drama.
The choristers, singing in German, dealt out a succession of immaculate chorales and brought a real emotional sway to Bach’s final moving chorus.
They were also integral participants in the work’s drama, with their gripping choral responses to the beautifully paced and pointed narrative between the Evangelist, Pilate and Jesus. This sequence was also heightened by the shift from terse continuo accompaniment for recitatives to full Baroque orchestral splendour, which Paczian’s orchestra is well able to deliver.
Some in the audience may remember tenor Henry Choo as a mighty Evangelist six years ago. Tonight, one felt that the Australian very much lives with this role, fine-tuning every inflection and nuance of what is, perhaps, the ultimate Storyteller.
James Ieolu, as Pilate, impressed with his subtle, almost conversational involvement in the musical dialogue, while also acquitting himself with fluency and style in two demanding arias.
Rita Paczian. Photo / NZME
Paczian is to be commended for bringing in young singers, recent graduates from our music schools, on the brink of international study and making their names on the competition circuit.
Bass Samuel McKeever as Jesus, used his considerable vocal resonance as an effective foil to the more theatrical Choo.
Tenor Shiddharth Chand who just a few weeks ago was in the cast of NZOpera’s Unruly Tourists, combined shading and showmanship in his arias, set against some of Bach’s most imaginative instrumental backdrops.
Soprano Alexandra Francis brough a winning brightness to her “Ich folge dir gleichfalls” whilst alto Cecily Shaw needed a little more projection for her finely phrased and considered singing to be fully appreciated.
