Performance exquisitely delivered

 

Darkness & Light

Saturday 12 April 2025
Knox Church

City Choir Dunedin delighted a well-filled Knox Church on Saturday evening with "Darkness & Light" under the baton of its musical director David Burchell.

Knox Church was an appropriate venue for his selection of predominantly religious music. Most items were composed within the past 30 years, although the opening hymn, Thomas Tallis’s O Nata Lux de Lumino, was published in 1575. 

The Tallis inspired the smoothly performed O Radiant Dawn by James McMillan, which followed. Louis Vierne’s Clair de Lune, played solo by Christchurch organist Sea-am Thompson, opens delicately then becomes more intense as the work progresses. Thompson gained in confidence as he played this work, while his other solo, Kerensa Briggs’ Light and Darkness in the second part of the concert, showed why he has won an organ scholarship to study at Oxford University. 

In the exquisite Lux Aeterna by Morten Lauridsen, the 70-strong choir demonstrated its flexibility, the tenors and basses in particular rising to the challenge of this work.

The second half of the programme opened with Matariki by Chris Artley, a work that Burchell admitted was unseasonal but fitted into the overall theme of the night.

Then came what for many of the audience was the highlight, Dark Night of the Soul, the first of two compositions by Norwegian-born Ola Gjeilo. The words are from a 16th century poem by St John of the Cross and the uplifting music contains two of Gjeilo’s trademarks — the use of piano, an instrument on which the composer himself is highly skilled — and the choir humming chords.

On the piano, Sandra Crawshaw gave a sterling performance, enhanced by a string quartet comprising Dunedin Symphony Orchestra players Tessa Petersen (violin), Ngaruaroha Martin (violin), Katrina Sharples (viola) and Heleen Du Plessis (cello).

In Dark Night of the Soul, the choir excelled, reflecting the many hours of rehearsal that ensured success with this very demanding composition. Briggs’ work was followed by Gjeilo’s Luminous Night of the Soul, again utilising the DSO string quartet and Crawshaw on the piano.

A cello solo — beautifully rendered by Du Plessis — led almost imperceptibly into the choir, followed by a piano solo to introduce humming chords that segued into the poetry of Charles Anthony Silvestri. It was a lovely work, again showing the choir’s skill and a fitting end to an excellent lead-in to Easter.

Review by Gillian Vine, The Star, 17 April 2025