Bach Mass to be sung by choir

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32971, 18 July 1972, Page 10

Bach Mass to be sung by choir

One of the greatest works in the choral calendar, Bach’s Mass in B minor, is to be performed on Thursday night in a subscription concert by the Christchurch Harmonic Society choir, with a powerful line-up of soloists. The Bach Mass has a special significance for the choir, because it was the work chosen 24 years ago when the newly-formed National Orchestra (now the N.Z.B.C. Symphony) gave its first choral concert. The Harmonic Choir took part in; that concert. For tomorrow night’s performance, the orchestral needs will be supplied by the' Christchurch Civic Orchestra, and Don Whelan will play’, the organ continue. The list of soloists is headed by April Cantelo, theEnglish soprano who is visit-j ing lecturer at the University; of Canterbury. The other; three are New Zealanders— Honor McKellar (contralto),! Anthony Benfell (tenor), and Maurice Taylor (bass). The performance will not be in the Civic Theatre, the usual subscription concert venue, but in the Christchurch Cathedral. Miss Cantelo has already given concerts in Christ-

church while she has been lecturing at the university. She is also directing the ''Schoo! of Music production’ ■ of Purcell’s “Fairy Queen.” | ’ Miss Cantelo sang the i; soprano solo in “Come ye ,isons of art” with the choir; during the Commonwealth! Arts Festival in Liverpool ini I 1965, under the direction of! Charles Groves. Honor McKellar returned to New Zealand last year to; ’ a position at the Universityof Otago. On her last visit. Ito the United Kingdom she i; sang at Glydebourne and gave performances of con-' temporary music in the Wig-1 "more Hall, at the Royal! ; Festival Hall, and on 8.8. C.! television. In New Zealand she has toured with the ;New Zealand Opera Com-j 'pany, and has done broad-: casting, oratorio work, and i recitals. In 1963 she sang; iwith the society in the; “Dream of Gerontius.” • Anthony Benfell, of Auckland, has won the James! i Stenberg Aria at the Auckland Competitions. In 1968 he toured New Zealand with 'the New Zealand Opera Quartet, and he has sung with the New Zealand Opera Company. He has also appeared with the N.Z.B.C. Symphony Orchestra both on the concert platform and on the air. Maurice Taylor, the Wanganui bass, has sung I

Iwith most major choral ’societies in New Zealand as Swell as in solo recitals in Imany centres. This year he will sing in Wellington,] Christchurch, and Dunedin with the N.Z.B.C. Symphony Orchestra. The Mass in B minor i occupies a place among the greatest choral works. It has 'been ranked with the highjest in other art-forms, such as the magnificent paintings in the Sistine Chapel, or the ; finest examples of Gothic architecture in Europe, and as an expression of Christian idealism it has been called | one of the most sublime monuments of the Christian | faith. Bach himself, in a letter to his sovereign. Augustus ill!. Elector of Saxony, in 11733 referred to it as an “insignificant example of the ‘skill I possess in Musique. iin all humility begging your ■Majesty to regard it not as] jits indifferent merits deI serve.” But this lowly esti-, mation of his own work was placed alongside his petition for his appointment as the Elector’s Court Composer. In comparison with his other, choral works, the Mass demonstrates Bach’s insati-; able interest in music, his; strong devotional impulse, his instinctive sense of pro-; portion and balance, and his, ability to think and plan on, I the grandest scale. I