Massed Orpheus Does Bach proud

Bach worked in the Lutheran Church, so a setting of the Latin mass is not what he would have done as part of his working life, thus the B minor Mass is not a work he composed for performance. Rather, toward the end of his life he assembled the mass from works he had previously composed, and in doing so he offered one of the great choral works of all time.

Bach never heard it performed. In fact, it disappeared until nearly 150 years after his death. These days, with authentic practice all the rage, performances of the work usually involve very small choirs, so to hear a large, hundred-voice choir is a blast from the near past.

But when sung with the life and precision heard in this splendid performance, this chorus-dominated work can make a wonderful impression.

And in most respects this was not an old-fashioned performance.

The orchestra, with some crucially placed New Zealand Symphony Orchestra players, gave us playing without string vibrato, and also gave us baroque timpani, splendidly stylish trumpets and a lovely oboe first among a first-rate team of obbligato players.

The soloist team acquitted itself very well, with no-one absolutely standing out.

But the choir is the thing in the B minor Mass, and here the Orpheus covered itself with glory. Michael Fulcher had rehearsed them very thoroughly and it paid off with singing of clarity, rhythmic verve and great precision. Sometimes the sheer numbers made for a touch of muddiness, but the ending string of stirring choruses were gloriously sung, doing final justice to a performance that did Bach proud.