We’ve said before in this column that Ōtautahi Christchurch’s music scene is flying high. Even so, it’s some coup for Christchurch Symphony Orchestra that Roderick Williams OBE, one of the leading British baritones of our time, is making his New Zealand debut in Fauré's Requiem. It’s almost a waste; Williams is rather more star power than Fauré's warhorse requires. It’s a beautiful piece and popular for a reason, but the baritone solos last a total of 10 or 15 minutes. Roderick Williams OBE, what on earth are you doing here?
He laughs good-humouredly, and explains that, “in [his] Greta Thunberg way,” he’s conscious of his air miles. Christchurch is one stop on a long trip that, as we speak, finds him in Port Douglas, North Queensland, having already appeared in Townsville for the annual Australian Festival of Chamber Music. He’s heading for Melbourne and Adelaide, too, and in Aotearoa he’ll visit friends, give workshops and stop for a lunchtime recital in Nelson.
“When I travel long distances, the idea is to put down roots and make relationships,” Williams says. “I’ve done the Fauré many times, but each time, it’s new and exciting, because it’s in different places with different people.”
He’s recorded it, too, with Harry Christophers and his superb choir, The Sixteen. Like Christophers, Williams attended Magdalen College, Oxford. He’s charmingly self-deprecating about it (“Old-boy networks and things like that are not how the world works any more, and it shouldn’t”), but says his time as a choral scholar gave him the discipline to be a professional singer.
“People don’t spoonfeed you. You have to learn to turn up, do the work in your own time, motivate yourself. We’d be singing different music every day and I was required to know it. It was a useful framework to attach the rest of my life to, and I’m grateful for that.”
Now 59, Williams is finally being appreciated as a composer, too. He co-wrote Be Thou My Vision with Nigel Hess and Shirley J Thompson, a commission for King Charles’ 2023 coronation.
Quite separately from Be Thou My Vision, at the coronation Williams sang Henry Walford Davies’ Confortare, a piece written for George VI, which the singer describes as “70 seconds of pure musical bliss”. Still, Westminster Abbey, a newly crowned king, an audience of millions. Eek.
“It was nerve-racking,” Willliams admits. “But then I thought, ‘Roddy, you’re singing for 72 seconds, a piece that hardly goes above middle C.’ I’ve been singing for 45, 50 years, if I can’t manage a piece that lasts 72 seconds and barely goes above middle C, I really should retire now.” l
Roderick Williams, Lilburn, Fauré Requiem: Christchurch Symphony Orchestra, Douglas Lilburn Auditorium, Christchurch, September 7.
