Mozart’s Messiah: Handel for the Viennese Golden Age

Mozart’s Messiah: Handel for the Viennese Golden Age

On Sunday June 2, Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir will join a trans-Tasman quartet of singers and Orchestra Wellington to perform a rarely-heard treasure: Mozart’s arrangement of Handel’s Messiah.

Under the baton of Tecwyn Evans, they’ll reveal how Handel’s masterpiece was refurbished for audiences in the golden age of Mozart’s Vienna.

In 1789, Mozart had recently finished his powerfully emotional opera Don Giovanni. He quickly saw how he could apply his mastery of dramatic effect to the Messiah.

Mozart updated the score with a broader palette drawn from the tastes and talents of his times, colouring it with sonorous horns, gorgeous clarinets and sweet-toned flutes.

His version re-assigned the melodies, borrowing from some of the choral numbers to give the soloists more chances to shine.

This Wellington performance welcomes young four soloists who are quickly gaining a raft of critical accolades in New Zealand and Australia.

Soprano Morag Atchison and mezzo-soprano Bianca Andrews have already attracted an appreciative following in New Zealand. They appeared together with Voices in an acclaimed performance of Mozart’s Requiem last year.

Australian tenor Henry Choo made his principal debut with Opera Australia as the Italian Singer in Der Rosenkavalier. Since then, he has sung many leading roles for the national company and been an oratorio soloist for most leading Australian orchestras.

Bass James Clayton is one the leading singers to emerge from Western Australia in recent years. This year he will sing Escamillo in Carmen for Opera Australia and the title role in Rigoletto; also Leporello in Don Giovanni and Schaunard in La Bohème for West Australian Opera.

Conductor Tecwyn Evans is a New Zealand Youth Choir alumnus. His sympathetic understanding of singers has led to conducting positions with the Glyndebourne Festival Opera, the English Touring Opera, Opera New Zealand, Oper Köln, Grazer Oper, Exeter Festival, and Opera North. This year Wellington audiences will see him conduct the NZSO with Bryn Terfel. Evans and Terfel have also recorded a CD for Deutsche Gramophone with the Welsh National Opera.

HANDEL’S MESSIAH as arranged by W A Mozart
A baroque favourite through a classical lens

Sunday 2 June 2013 at 3.30pm
Wellington Town Hall

Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir with Orchestra Wellington
Tecwyn Evans: conductor
Morag Atchison: soprano
Bianca Andrew: mezzo soprano
Henry Choo: tenor
James Clayton: bass

Tickets from Ticketek (service fee will apply)
Tel: 0800 TICKETEK (842 538) www.ticketek.co.nz

Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir
Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir draws from among the nation’s best singers, including former members of the New Zealand Youth Choir, to create a chamber choir of flexible size and wide repertoire. Formed in 1998 by the NZ Youth Choir Board, the choir immediately won the gold and silver awards at the Tolosa International Choral Competition in Spain that same year. Since then it has continued to perform and compete nationally and internationally with great success, led by its Artistic Director, Karen Grylls. The choir performs regularly with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and has made a number of critically acclaimed recordings for Naxos, including masses by Vanhal and Hummel. Voices maintains a steady touring schedule throughout New Zealand, performing concerts and presenting workshops for young singers. In 2011 it represented New Zealand at the 9th Symposium on Choral Music held in Puerto Madryn, Argentina.

ENDS

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