Music From A Farr Review

Reviewer    Garth Wilshere
Concert      Music From A Farr, Vector Wellington Orchestra
Date           Saturday, 12 July 2008
Where        Town Hall

This concert had a rousing start as conductor Marc Taddei reached the podium and launched into the opening work, Leonard Bernstein's magnificent Chichester Psalms.

With the text arranged by by Bernstein from the Psalms in their original Hebrew it can be a challenge for choirs, but the Orpheus Choir handled it with good diction and power, particularly when the whole choir was in full voice. They are a big choir but have agility and flexibility.

The is a problem with vocal ballance. The Orpheus has a large soprano and alto section, and twenty basses, but with only eight tenors (a recurring difficulty for most choirs). It is impossible, despite their good work, not to notice the deficiency, but that did not detract from the overall impact which was terrific. The solo soprano line was attractively and sweetly sung by Julia Moss-Pearson. Under Taddei's dynamic direction the orchestra responded with great strength and precision making for a marvellously affecting and powerful performance from everybody.

Gareth Farr's Triple Concerto is arguably his finest classical work, written for the virtuosic abilities of the NZ Trio (Justine Cormack - violin, Ashley Brown - cell and Sarah Watkins - piano). Each player has solo lines which allow their strengths to shine.

I heard echoes of Lilburn in the string writing but more than anything else a richly romantic Russian flavour, mentioned by Farr in his notes as Rachmaninov and Shostakovich. The sweep, intenstity and bite in the strings was marvellously realised in a tremendously good performance.

In the exotic Rimsky-Korsakov Scheherazade based on The Tales From The Arabian Nights, we had bold and committed playing, with Matthew Ross's lovely violin solos representing the Princess Scheherazade, close to perfection.

Probably the Vector Wellington Orchestra's best concert to date under Taddei and a concert year highlight.