By William DartNew Zealand Youth Choir can be relied upon for a ripping good show and, on the eve of its European tour, 49 choristers, under the able David Squire, did just that. The choir tackled it all with remarkable sangfroid and precision, graced by a welcome, melodious tenor solo from Manase Latu. Singing almost entirely without scores, effortlessly transitioning from spirited waiata to complex Latin and German polyphony, this was music-making at a truly ambassadorial level. Doubtlessly the spacious sonorities of David Hamilton's very conservative Ave verum corpus will resound magnificently in Paris's Notre Dame Cathedral next month. Old favourites included R. Murray Schafer's Epitaph for Moonlight, its freeform textures skilfully spun out by singers in a circle around the audience.

Source: New Zealand Herald June 28, 2016 17:06 UTC