Warm choral music well received
The Royal Dunedin Male Choir performs at St Paul's Cathedral yesterday. PHOTO: LINDA ROBERTSON
Dunedin weather was certainly chilly yesterday, but St Paul's Cathedral was filled with support for warm, inviting choral music from the Royal Dunedin Male Choir's midwinter concert.
The programme was supplemented with items from Otago Girls' and Otago Boys' High School choirs, both preparing for the Big Sing regional event next Monday, and the Otago University Sexytet. John Buchannan conducted, pianist was Linda Folland and David Burchell provided organ accompaniment for some items.
The concert opened with a bracket of Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, by Vaughan Williams, a pleasant choral arrangement of The Wild Rovers by Mark Sirett and Wide Open Spaces by contemporary Canadian composer Sarah Quartel, which showed some fine tenor timbre.
Their other items included an arrangement of Canlon Lan with good harmony and dynamics, a relaxed delivery of Pacem with violin obligato by Dean Hollebon, who also joined for Abide with Me. If Ever I Would Leave You and Abide With Me were both highlights musically, but on the whole vocal diction from all choral items needed more attention.
Sexytet contributed three numbers: Bugle Boy of Company B, Guadeamus Igitur and Kai Waiata.
The secondary school choirs each sang two contrasting works. The girls' Nautilas Chorale opened with Britten's popular Deo Gracias followed by All That Jazz accompanied by Will Martin (whose strength as a jazz pianist was ideal), but the song required more animated delivery and stronger top soprano lines.
Fortress is a 16-member combined choir. Their contribution was Solitude by Chris Artley and a well-balanced arrangement of Time After Time. Both items required more detail to vocal enunciation.
The boys' 14-member Mandate choir (accompanied by Sharon McLennan) sang In Flanders Fields and Mambo Italiano, which was highlighted with choreography.
Best wishes to these choirs in their forthcoming Big Sing competition.
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