Sung and Played from the Heart

The title, the timing and the content of Songs for Humanity (Knox Church, 1 August 2020) by City Choir Dunedin were all spot-on – so much so that one could hardly believe they were chosen (as conductor David Burchell pointed out in his preamble) before the world-wide spread of Covid-19. What could be more appropriate in the midst of so many people’s trials and tribulations than to use music’s power as a balm and salve during this devastating pandemic, and to dedicate the performance of the main work – Fauré’s Requiem – to those “who have died and will yet die” from it?

Three shorter pieces of accessible music by living composers made up the programme’s first half. In Norwegian-born Ola Gjeilo’s Song of the Universal, ably sung by all the women’s voices supported by the Dunedin Symphony Orchestra’s strings (concertmaster: Tessa Petersen) and pianist Sandra Crawshaw, alternating slow and fast sections brought out the ecstatic, aspirational quality of Walt Whitman’s poem. By contrast, in New Zealander Christopher Marshall’s more complex Pastorale – a setting of Psalm 23 for soprano solo and men’s voices with specially arranged accompaniment of strings, organ (David Burchell) and percussion – the prevailing mood was consolatory, albeit punctuated by dramatic outbursts which tested both the choir and the soloist (soprano Caroline Burchell) to the utmost, as well as assistant conductor Mark Anderson on the podium. Then came Latvian Pēteris Vasks’ Dona nobis pacem for four-part choir, strings and organ (Johnny Mottershead) – a highly effective final item, where the mostly slow-moving music’s austere diatonic language provided a series of cumulative build-ups of tension and excitement before the peaceful ending, and where conductor Burchell – now back on the podium – achieved an excellent choral blend throughout.

In his hands, too, the concert’s main work, Fauré’s Requiem, received a most sensitive and stylish interpretation. The crystalline radiance of soprano Caroline Burchell in the Pie Jesu and the darker, more anguished tones of baritone Scott Bezett in the Offertorium and the Libera me were particularly noteworthy, and the choir coped well with the subtleties of the composer’s chromatically-enhanced harmonic language. The orchestra’s lower strings (Fauré wanted no violins except for a violin solo in the Sanctus) combined with organ, horns and harp to give unfailingly appropriate support to the choir’s flowing lines, with well-judged dramatic irruptions by the horns for ‘Hosanna’ in the Sanctus and the ‘Dies Irae’ section of the Libera me, and delicious arpeggios on the organ for the In Paradisum.

Beethoven inscribed on the manuscript of his Missa solemnis these words: “From the heart – may it go back – to the heart.” The capacity audience’s response to all the items in this concert showed how deeply they felt that every musician who sang or played  in this moving and memorable event did so wholeheartedly, thereby making a worthy contribution to the maintenance of true human values in a world that sorely needs them.

Review by Donald Cullington, 2 August 2020

Photo: Ian Thomson

Faure and Friends Review

City of Dunedin Choir and Friends at St Paul’s Sunday 13 June

City of Dunedin Choir and guests - organist Rachel Swindells, soprano Catherine Daly-Reeve and baritone Benjamin Caukwell - directed alternately by David Burchell and Michael Dawson warmed a capacity audience at St Paul’s this Sunday with a charming selection of works by Fauré, Dupré, Saint-Saëns, Poulenc and Alain.

The subdued programme steeped its audience in the mood of the early twentieth-century as experienced and expressed by the French. The only brusque tonality here was Poulenc’s difficult “Four Small Prayers” which suffered through an initial lack of confidence, but managed to retain a sense of pitch despite the work’s harmonic convolutions. The last two prayers - “Seigneur, je vous en prie” and “O mes très chers frères” – were particularly nicely done. Unfortunately the intriguing melodic twists in Dupré’s “Laudate Dominum” were lost behind an over zealous organ accompaniment.

In an excellent line-up, the highlight goes to Fauré’s beautiful “Requiem”. Accompanied by Swindells on the organ, the choir and soloists successfully rendered its quiet menace, its awe-full melodies and teasingly short-lived climaxes to achieve ethereal excellence. Daly-Reeve’s “Pie Jesu” revealed a voice of boyish clarity and fittingly celestial quality. Caukwell’s “Libera Me” and “Offertorium” revealed a rich voice with dramatic strengths particularly in keeping the chant-like sections alive.

Alain’s delightful set of variations for organ, well played by Burchell, insinuates Janequin’s sixteenth century simplicity into the cynicism of the twentieth century. Saint-Saëns’ “Calme des Nuits”, “Les Fleurs” and “Ave Maria” revealed his other pictorial strengths away from “Danse Macabre”. The small choir in Fauré’s dulcette “Tantum Ergo” is commended, as is the unaccompanied singing throughout the programme.

Fauré’s “Cantique de Jean Racine” was sung with sweet intensity, its lyricism providing a welcome comparatively spirited interlude.

This was a programme which demanded quiet strength and was for the most part a convincing portrayal of the still and small French voice.

Bravo.

Marian Poole (Review published in the Otago Daily Times, Monday 14 June 2010)