Splendid Performance By Royal Musical Society

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31319, 15 March 1967, Page 14

Splendid Performance By Royal Musical Society

The Royal Christchurch Musical Society gave a performance of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion in the Cathedral last evening. The soloists were: Maurice Larsen as the Evangelist, Grant Dickson as the Christ, and Heather Taylor, Anthea Moller, Richard Greager, and John Fisher. The choir, as is its custom, sang splendidly; it had the balanced weight to give varying sonorities of many striking colourings which preserved tonal vitality in the very soft singing, so frequently and with wonderfully telling effect, and gave a rounded richness of timbre to dramatically heavy passages, always keeping careful grading in changing levels of expression. Rhythmically there was a strong and thoroughly confident grip. Particularly praiseworthy was the acuity with which the choir immediately captured the atmospheres desired by Mr Field-Dodgson in his widely-ranging interpretative directions.

The chorales always create their own loveliness of effect and did so particularly when their melodies were thrown into balanced texture with solo work as in “O Grief” and “I Would Beside My Lord.” The same type of effect was heard in the chorus part which accompanies the solo “Ah! Now is My Saviour Gone.” All the dramatic choruses depicting the crowd scenes, the fury of the elements, the inspired utterance of the centurion, and the bitter grief of the burial scene were sung with heightened imagination and excellent technical control. The contrapuntal complexities of ithe eight-part choruses were i all unfolded with aptly contrasted colours, and the clarity of words was exemplary. The orchestra, led by Mr Louis Yffer, made an excellent contribution to the artistic success of the performance through its sensitive, highly expressive, and thoroughly neat playing which was stylish in clarity of line and supple in accentuation and phrasing. The players were responsive to the changing atmospheres and created most attractive tonal qualities. It was surprising how richly resonant so comparatively few players could sound. Maurice Larsen did distinguished work a$ the Evan-

gelist. His beautiful lyric tenor voice was well suited to the music and he sang with a rhythmic flexibility and with a naturally accented flow of clear articulation that were delightful to hear. His work was dramatic but never departed from the restraint demanded by the style of the work. This was a highly artistic performance setting an impressive standard. Grant Dickson as the Christ sang with steadiness of tone which had attractive timbre and carrying power. Very even weight of accent frequently resulted in some syllables having false quantities, and this led sometimes to loss of dramatic conviction. Against Mr Larsen’s meticulous accentuation—or rather his regard for the syllables not requiring accentuation—this was inclined to be prominent, and it can result in giving a feeling of lack of understanding. And this was strange for it is so unlike Mr Dickson’s usual work. His voice has a warm and sympathetic quality and when he calls on it for dramatic strength it can respond very tellingly. Heather Taylor’s voice was well suited to the texture of the music and she sang with her accustomed charm, clarity and artistic sensibility. Anthea Moller’s contralto voice had a pleasingly even quality of tone that carried well in the building and had the requisite richness of timbre. Her interpretations compelled both attention and admiration. Richard Greager sang the tenor arias with vibrant and fluent quality of | itone. The unforced power and interesting timbre of his voice i made one wish that he had' more to do in the work. It was expressive and very pleasing singing. John Fisher’s resonant and clear voice was used with valuable effect in narrating the roles of the minor characters in the story and he sang his arias stylishly. Mr Field-Dodgson is to be congraulated upon his direction of the work which gave technical security, artistic polish and a movingly beautiful unity of design. —C.F.B. Barge Service.—The possibilities of a roll-on. roll-off barge service between Onehunga and Wellington are being investigated by the Unit Shipping Company.—(P.A.).