Sunday, Sept. 18th, 2022, Auckland Town Hall
Astor Piazzolla: Adios Nonino and Escolaso
Gabor Tolnay: Symphonie 2019 (World Premiere)
Maurice Durufle: Requiem Opus 9
The highlight of Bach Musica NZ’s spring concert on September 18th
at the Auckland Town Hall, Maurice Durufle’s Requiem, was preceded
by the two somewhat contrasting concert items of Astor Piazzolla’s
Astor Nonino and Escolaso and the world premiere of Hungarian
composer Gabor Tolnay’s ‘Symphonie 2019’.
With this critic’s mind-set fully prepared for the complexities of
Durufle’s seldom performed Requiem, the preceding works were
therefore anticipated with some apprehension.
These hesitations were, however, quickly removed by Stephanie
Poole’s distinct Accordion-virtuosity. The assured mastery of her
instrument melting with the rich sound of the orchestra ensemble
was something of a revelation! The music plausibly conveyed the
‘joie de vivre’ and passion of the South American mentality – as it was
in the sensitive hands of Stephanie Poole, who – following the
completion of her concert-item – then took her place in the alto section
of the Bach Musica NZ Choir.
The world premiere of Gabor Tolnay’s Symphonie 2019 also came
initially across as a bit of an enigma. Now in the hands of the full
orchestra, its forceful musical expression, however, quickly attracted
the audience’s full attention. Its compository lines demonstrated
urge, purpose and beauty. Intelligently built around Franz Liszt’s
adaptation of Fantasy and Fugue on the theme of B-A-C-H, its rich
and rather unique ‘major’ chords sometimes even evoked Wagnerian
connotations. The composer, present at the launching of his work,
was rightfully thanked by the audience with sustained applause.
Maurice Durufle’s Requiem is often brought into connection with the
Requiem of his French countryman, Gabriel Faure, as both works are
the creation of formidable French composers and organists with
their distinct styles of composition and rhetoric. There are almost 70
years between the emergence of both works – Faure’s Requiem in
1880 and that of Durufle in 1948 – and this initially as an organ version.
Their side-by-side existence is often explained along the
lines that Durufle’s work is considered a modernised descendant of
Faure’s creation, leading the listener into the 20th century of French
choral composition.
As an icon of its relevant era, the Durufle Requiem stretches from the
‘mortalite mystique’ of its ‘requiem aeternam’-introduction via its uninhibited
outcry of ‘libera eas’ and ‘hosanna in excelsis’ to the
peaceful and all-concluding ‘in paradiso’ – an emotional ‘tour de force’
- a work calling out for outstanding interpreters, who are up to the
task.
Such musicians once again were found in Bach Musica NZ’s artists on
Sunday afternoon. The Choir embraced this difficult work with
bravura and sensitivity, with perception, skill and distinct musicality.
A profound understanding of the work underpinned the variances of
the Choir’s rich sound – in fortissimo as well as in their hushed
pianissimo.
Similar standards apply to the excellent Bach Musica NZ orchestra,
once again under the assured leadership of concertmaster Yanghe Yu.
The orchestra impeccably expressed and underlined the everchanging
emotions of this demanding work, whose calibre of
performance could only have been augmented by the inclusion of a
Grand Organ, for which organist Maurice Durufle would obviously
have made provisions in the original score. Undoubtedly, this
instrument would have added to the work’s mysticism. Economics
may, however, have forced Bach Musica NZ to choose an orchestral
version.
Robert Tucker’s cultivated baritone gave ‘hostia et preces’ a very
believable, insightful expression. Elisha Hulton’s soulful and lyric
mezzo-soprano provided a significant and restful pause from the
work’s dramatic pace.
Elizabeth Lau, Bach Musica NZ’s Deputy Music Director, stood in for
Rita Paczian. She delivered a memorable concert-performance of the
highest calibre. In guiding orchestra and choir through three
contrasting works, Ms Lau demonstrated her own versatility and
flair. Her secure guidance and generous artistic license provided for
orchestra and choir, thus enabling them to give unrestrained and
powerful renditions.
Briefly returning to the Durufle concert-highlight, it has been
established, that the composer dedicated his work to the memory of
his father. His adoption of themes from the ‘Gegorian Mass for the
Dead’, therefore establishes a link between his Requiem and the
inevitable, eventual end of the human life – also highlighted by soloist
Elisha Hulton’s haunting ‘Pie Jesu Domine’.
With their concert-programming Bach Musica NZ therefore has
unintentionally given a fitting and decidedly reverential tribute to the
sad passing of Queen Elizabeth II.
Rainer W. Buhmann