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NZSO Music Director Emeritus James Judd conducts the NZSO National Youth Orchestra and New Zealand Youth Choir concert at the Michael Fowler Centre.
NZSO National Youth Orchestra, New Zealand Youth Choir conducted by James Judd and David Squire with Catherine Carby (mezzo). Music by Downey, Wehi arr. Wiremu, Sibelius, Elgar. Michael Fowler Centre July 5.
The 2019 National Youth Orchestra here revealed itself as a fine body of players, although it took a little time for its qualities to reveal themselves. That was down to the programme that only showed the orchestra in full flower with Sibelius' 'The Oceanides' and the second half Elgar's 'The Music Makers'.
A new work by Glen Downie, 'light speckled droplet', is a slow piece that, while full of atmosphere, didn't explore the full orchestra, with the New Zealand Youth Choir adding the colour with its wordless singing sounding rather like the chorus from Ravel's 'Daphnis and Chloe'.
Then we heard the chorus alone, conducted by David Squire, with a most beautiful rendering of Tuirina Wehi's 'Waerenga-a-Hika' in an arrangement by Robert Wiremu.
Sibelius' 'The Oceanides' is a short, taut evocation of the sea but, although well played it's a very difficult piece to bring off, and I was left wanting a little more certainty.
But the second half of Elgar's 'The Music Makers' was splendidly done. The work itself is very rarely performed, and although it was composed before World War 1 it has the feel of one of the composer's late, rather sad and reflective, pieces.
Inspired by the 1874 poem 'Ode' by Arthur O'Shaughnessy, and using the poem as the text for the work, it opens evocatively with the words ' We are the music makers, And we are the dreamers of dreams' and includes brief extracts from a number of the his works, 'Nimrod' from the "Enigma Variations', the first and second symphonies, and 'The Dream of Gerontius'.
In the right hands it can be a moving work, and under the guidance of James Judd, one of the great Elgar interpreters, this was definitely a moving and uplifting performance. Both mezzo Catherine Carby and the Youth Choir sang beautifully and the orchestra played with great assurance and enthusiasm.
