John Rosser is remembering a Tallis Scholars concert he attended in the 1980s. It’s the sort of gig you’d expect to find him at; he’s a choir man through and through. “My dad was a church organist,” Rosser says. “I’ve been singing from birth.”
The UK ensemble is a revered chamber choir, credited with unearthing numerous forgotten works of the Renaissance.
The group sang the initial part of the Eton Choirbook, a collection of late-mediaeval polyphony deemed so important it was the first music manuscript to be listed on Unesco’s UK Memory of the World, which collects documents of national significance.
“Boy,” says Rosser, “you had to be a real aficionado not to go to sleep. It was the same sound over and over for two hours. I realised then that if I was going to start a choir, it had to have more engagement or interest or just variety, or we were going to lose our audience.”
Rosser has steadfastly held to that with the choir he eventually did start, Viva Voce, which gives its year-end performance at Auckland Town Hall Concert Chamber on December 3.
In what sounds like an act of revenge on snowy, log-fire Christmas concerts, the show is themed “Summer Loving”. The concert features everything from a cappella works by Vaughan Williams and Elgar (“a master of a cappella”) to the Beatles and La La Land.
Do people who want to hear the choral works of Morten Lauridsen also want to hear music from Grease?
“Our audience know they’ll get something a bit denser like the Lauridsen, something they have to listen for and take in, but they know they’ll get something to smile at, a piece like Summer Nights [from Grease]. It’s fair to say our audience trusts us or they wouldn’t keep coming back.”
They’ve been coming since 1985, when Rosser formed Viva Voce. What are some of the differences he notices from the early days?
“We were younger then,” he jokes. While there are a few originals left, Rosser stresses that the choir is regularly replenished, though not without some difficulty. “These days, it’s harder to get the level of commitment needed to maintain the standard a good semi-professional chamber choir should be at. People want to do all sorts of other activities.”
Rosser has also noticed that local choirs automatically theme their concerts now, something he’s always done with Viva Voce to keep the audience engaged, his own response to one-paced Tallis Scholars concerts.
“We were pioneers of that in New Zealand – concerts that had more meat to the theme. No one was doing that in the mid-80s. More and more choirs are doing it now.” He adds with a laugh: “Sincerest form of flattery.”
Viva Voce presents Summer Loving, Auckland Town Hall Concert Chamber, December 3.
