NZSO Requiem: life and death across three centuries

Conductor Gemma New with NZSO, Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir and soloists for Mozart’s Requiem

Image credit: Latitude Creative

Those who came to the NZSO’s recent programme “Requiem” in Wellington and Auckland to hear Mozart’s Requiem would have been well-pleased by a fine performance of the famous work. But more of that in a moment. It’s equally likely that those audience members, like me, were surprised and delighted by the impact of the first half of the programme, an inspired pairing of two compelling and very different works about life and death, written when their composers were young men.

New Zealand composer John Psathas’ Greek heritage is often mentioned and, commenting on his work Seikilos, he suggested the most important lesson he has learned from that heritage is “live while you can”. He wrote Seikilos in 1998 while in his early 30’s for a commission from the Edinburgh Contemporary Arts Trust. It was premiered by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in a festival of New Zealand music in Scotland, an event initiated by Psathas’ older composing colleague and friend Lyell Cresswell, who died earlier this year.

Seikilos is named for a Greek composer of antiquity who created an epitaph in the form of a musically notated lyric poem, now known as the Seikilos Song, and believed to be possibly the oldest surviving complete musical composition. It incorporates the sentiment “live while you can” that has influenced Psathas.

Composer John Psathas - “live while you can”

Image credit: Gareth Watkins

Seikilos is dark at first, passionate and angular, containing hints, perhaps, of the famous epitaph melody in the sliding strings. Conductor Gemma New and the musicians flung themselves into the driving musical current, the forces of the orchestra used magnificently to express a complex mix of moods. The sense of forward momentum, underlined by percussion, is present even in contrasting quiet, ethereal sections, woodwind birdsong set against brassy rhythmic flourishes and repetitive strings. The ending is apparently peaceful but with a sense of energy still coiled within the texture.

Richard Strauss was just 25 when he wrote his tone poem Death and Transfiguration, exploring the inevitability of death using the full emotional excesses of the Romantic period. (He lived another 60 years and referred to the work on his deathbed.) Like the Psathas, Death and Transfiguration requires a full-sized symphony orchestra, and both works displayed the energetic inspiration of New on the podium and the virtuosity of the NZSO musicians, offering many opportunities for expressive solos and strong statements from different orchestral sections.

The quiet strings of the C minor opening are grounded by hints of Stygian depths from the contrabassoon. Strauss uses all available timbral forces for his story-telling, contrasting the darker colours of brass and low winds with lovely poignant flutes and harps, a gorgeous soaring oboe melody, the exquisite sweetness of solo violin from Concertmaster Vesa-Matti Leppänen, the striking colour of cor anglais and even a large gong. A dramatic timpani blow heralds a battle with death; later, the contrabassoon and tuba ground a great choir of brass and winds, strings floating above. The lush romantic harmonies carry us to the ending where, with heavenly hymn-like effects including harp arpeggios, all ends in joyous transfiguration in (what else?) C major.

The audience returned after the interval to a different scene, the NZSO reduced to Mozartean proportions with strings sections halved, the 60-plus Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir positioned directly behind the orchestra and the only percussion a pair of modern reproductions of 18th century timpani. New ushered in the quartet of outstanding New Zealand soloists, soprano Anna Leese, London-based alto Rhonda Browne, tenor Amitai Pati and baritone Robert Tucker and Mozart’s famous Requiem in D minor K.626 began.

Soloists for the NZSO’s Requiem: (clockwise from left) Rhonda Browne, Anna Leese, Robert Tucker and Amitai Pati

“…exceptionally well-matched in power and presence”.

From the beginning of the Introit the lovely open choral sound of the choir was striking. This is a very capable group with young voices alongside more experienced singers. The training they’ve received from their extraordinary Music Director, Dr Karen Grylls, ensured a marvellous performance of a challenging score. They excelled in the declamatory sections, the Dies Irae especially fierce and grand, and were movingly tender in the Lacrimosa. The vocally ungrateful acoustics of the Michael Fowler Centre detracted occasionally from the crisp precision of the counterpoint and revealed just a few wayward sibilants in the Sanctus.

Unlike the works in the first half of the programme, Mozart wrote this Requiem at the end of his life. In fact, he died before completing it, and the circumstances of its completion received a lot of attention in the programme notes. Whoever composed which part is, however, of lesser account than the glorious music which is indubitably Mozart’s in all the ways that matter.

We know from his operas that Mozart uses the different vocal colours of different registers to wonderful expressive effect.  This was particularly evident in the Requiem’s quartet of soloists. Exceptionally well-matched in power and presence, Leese’s gleaming soprano, Browne’s rich alto, Pati’s ringing emotion-laden tenor and Tucker’s finely grounded baritone combined beautifully in the ensemble pieces, allowing the different musical lines to play their parts with great clarity.

A delighted ovation for the NZSO, Voices NZ Chamber Choir, soloists and conductor Gemma New

Photo credit: Catherine Gibbs

Maestra New marshalled her forces briskly with a fine sense of momentum throughout and some moving meditative moments. This Requiem, in spite of reduced orchestral forces, was unashamedly a 21st century version of a work written in the late 18th century, performed by a symphony orchestra on mostly modern instruments, with a relatively large chamber choir and soloists most often heard in operatic settings. Enjoyed on those terms, it was an outstanding performance which held the audience in thrall, and deserved the delighted ovation it received.

“Requiem” NZSO Music by Psathas, Strauss and Mozart, Gemma New (conductor), Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir (Music Director Dr Karen Grylls), Anna Leese (soprano), Rhonda Browne (alto), Amitai Pati (tenor), Robert Tucker (baritone).

Wellington & Auckland 18-19 November, 2022.