Bach Musica NZ captivates with Mozart and Bach at Auckland Town Hall

NZ Herald

24-06-2025

From the start, Rita Paczian and her musicians relished the simmering syncopations and pungent suspensions of its first movement, with bass lines graduating from urgent murmurings to a mighty roar.
Shapely woodwind and forceful brass joined in with a confident stylishness that would serve the music well, right through to Mozart's ebullient finale.
Soloist Madeleine Xiao introduced herself with cool precision, offering no hint of fiery passagework to come, especially in the cadenzas penned by Beethoven.
If the second Romanza movement might have had its opening theme a little more tonally caressed, her impassioned virtuosity when major shifted to minor took the breath away.
Madeleine Xiao introduced herself with cool precision. Photo / Peter Jennings
Xiao's encore, Liszt's transcription of Schumann's song Widmung (Dedication) released glowing, soulful melodies from within torrents of incendiary bravura.
Significantly, this was dedicated, we were told, to Katherine Austin, one of our most treasured pianists, now battling ill health.
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach was famously mocked by his own father, the great Johann Sebastian, for writing music that was Prussian blue and hence susceptible to fading.
After the interval, the dazzling opening chorus of his Magnificat put a lie to that cruel paternal dismissal.
Further rousing choruses afforded Paczian's choir the opportunity to sing with molto gusto; in effective contrast with the nuanced phrases of the work's Et misericordia.
The four young soloists almost stole the show on Sunday night, effortlessly searching out the musical truth of Bach's sometimes awkward vocal writing.
Tenor Taliai Fifita was impressively agile in the florid demands of his Quia fecit. Photo / Peter Jennings
Elizabeth Mandeno's Quia respexit enthralled with the soprano's unruffled clarity and admirable projection.
Edward Laurenson took up the challenge of his Fecit potentiam with an infectious bravado, navigating through an eccentric accompaniment to enjoy every flourish, leaping octaves as if they were adjacent notes.
Sweet-toned tenor Taliai Fifita was impressively agile in the florid demands of his Quia fecit, as well as in his mellifluous duetting with mezzo Katie Trigg, whose lustrous voice was a source of unqualified joy whenever it rose from the texture.