Schubert's Mass Presented

The Victoria University choir presented Schubert's Mass in G and Handel's "Dixit Dominus" as part of a recital in the Arts Festival series of Music concerts. This was the choir's second performance of these works—the first was at their annual concert in Wellington earlier.

The choir was conducted by Anthony Jennings, and the accompaniment was by string players from Victoria and Canterbury universities. Considering their lack of rehearsal, the orchestra was very good. Mr. Lionel Mann, of St. Mark's Church. Wellington, who travelled to Christchurch especially for the concert, provided excellent organ accompaniments, the greatest virtue of which was that they were not over obvious.

The group spirit prevalent in the choir helps it to produce unified rhythm and tonal variation, and a refreshing feature is that it evidently works on the principle that "Singing is easy and fun." This results in singing which is energetic and obviously enjoyed— its only disadvantage is the choir's apparent inability to produce a real pianissimo. To me this seems a small fault—this capacity is probably the next stage which the choir will reach in its development.

A distinguished feature of the choir's Christchurch concert was the use of student soloists. This was a highly successful experiment and prompts me to beg that in future this practice will be followed for all the choir's concerts.

In the past the soloists used have been well-known local singers. The quality of these soloists has generally been good, but I feel that the University Choir concerts are an excellent opportunity to give younger singers a chance to gain valuable experience, and the use of student soloists would also make the concerts genuinely university activities—necessary if the choir is to make a name for itself independent of other Wellington choral groups.

The four soloists were Sandra Shearn and Elizabeth Kerr (sopranos), Peter Hurd (tenor) and Michael Jones (bass). Miss Shearn has a delightful voice and with more confidence should overcome her lack of volume. Miss Kerr has a powerful voice, at times rather harsh. The two male soloists were excellent. Mr. Jennings's conducting was authoritative and his control of the choir and orchestra was perfect.

Judie Falloon.