PROGRAMME AND PROGRAMME NOTES:
Pōwhiri and Introduction: Arekatera Maihi on pūkāea & Kerry Stevens announcer
PROGRAMME NOTES: INDRA HUGHES
Johann Sebastian Bach 1685–1750: Toccata and Fugue in D minor BWV 565 (featuring John Wells as organist) -
Probably the most famous of all pieces for the organ, this needs little introduction. March 21st is Bach’s birthday, so at the opening of an important new organ on this date it seems appropriate to include something by him, especially since he is acknowledged as the greatest composer for the instrument. There is also a link with the two previous Town Hall organs: this was the first piece played in the opening recital of the 1911 organ (see page 6); and it was played by John Wells at the final concert on the 1970 organ in December 2007.
Johannes Brahms 1833–1897: Laß dich nur nichts nicht dauren mit Trauren (Geistliches Lied), Op. 30 - Written in 1856, Brahms’ Geistliches Lied (‘Sacred Song’) gives an opportunity to demonstrate some of the organ’s resources
for quiet choral accompaniment, in particular the many beautiful string stops. Inspired by Brahms’ early studies of the Renaissance masters, the work is a masterpiece of technical and contrapuntal complexity: the choir parts are written
throughout as a double canon at the ninth. More important, though, is the fact that this is one of the most beautiful pieces in the choral repertoire, with its mood of gentle, lyrical serenity. Each verse of the text is linked by interludes from
the organ, and the final ‘Amen’, built above a long, low pedal note (played here on the marvellous 1911 Open Wood stop, first 16-foot and then 32-foot), is radiant and ecstatic.
Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry 1848–1918: 'I was glad' featuring Musica Sacra, The Graduate Choir New Zealand and Viva Voce choirs (John Rosser, conductor and Indra Hughes organist) - Sir Hubert Parry was one of the two senior figures in the
English musical establishment of his day, the other being Sir Charles Stanford. He was the archetypal English aristocrat, with an estate in Gloucestershire, an Eton-and-Oxford education, and a carnation in his buttonhole every day.
He was also the first person in England ever to be booked for speeding—and of course he was driving a Rolls Royce. But he was also a superb composer, whose beautifully crafted orchestral works have only recently begun to be recognised for their high quality. I was glad was commissioned for the Coronation of King Edward VII in 1902, and it has been performed at the Coronation of every Sovereign since. It perfectly captures the regal and ceremonial atmosphere of a grand occasion, and provides ample scope to display some of the organ’s ‘pomp and circumstance’ capabilities, like the 4-foot Tuba Clarion (played down an octave) at the opening, or the thunderous 64-foot Gravissima under the last note. In contrast, the more reflective section at ‘O pray for the peace of Jerusalem’ allows some of the organ’s quieter ‘orchestral’ voices to come to the fore.
John Wells b.1948: Organ Symphony in C major (First Performance). Commissioned by the Auckland Town Hall Organ Trust with funding from the Freemasons Roskill Foundation, and the Lodge of the Liberal Arts No. 500 - The composer writes: “The work is in five movements. The first, an Introduction and Allegro, sets a festive tone featuring the full organ and heavy reeds. The Allegro is in sonata form with some unusually robust writing in places. The second movement starts slowly and peacefully, and features the Kōauau (one of two stops on the organ inspired by the sonorities of Māori taonga pūoro) and other soft reeds on the well-equipped Solo division. The music then breaks into
a lively march which features the Great Tromba and Solo Orchestral Trumpet, possibly the loudest single stop on the instrument. A more tranquil atmosphere is resumed in the closing bars. A mysterious and highly chromatic Toccata
follows with a nod to Louis Vierne. Rapid passagework on the manuals and some virtuoso pedal writing make for a dark and dramatic mood with hardly any break at all in the rapid semiquaver movement. A more relaxed movement follows, this time featuring the second Māori stop, the Pūkāea. Rather dignified in manner, reflecting the ceremonial purpose of the pūkāea, this movement makes much of the organ’s many beautiful string and celeste colours. The last movement begins with a fanfare, with much use of the high-pressure Solo reeds and the 32-foot pedal ranks. A Toccata follows based on a chorale whose opening phrase has previously occurred, in various disguises, earlier in the Symphony. The final bars recall the opening of the entire work and exploit the full resources of this magnificent organ.” The Auckland Town Hall Organ Trust acknowledges with gratitude the celebratory Symphony composed by Dr John
Wells and funded by the Freemasons Roskill Foundation and the Lodge of the Liberal Arts No. 500.
I Festoso—Allegro incisivo
II Piacevole—Allegro marziale—Piacevole
III Toccata: Vivace
IV Largo
V Finale: Fanfare and Allegro
Featuring John Wells as organist.
Interval of fifteen minutes:
Sir Edward Cuthbert Bairstow 1874–1946: Blessed City, heavenly Salem performed by Musica Sacra, The Graduate Choir, New Zealand and Viva Voce choirs with Terence Maskell as conductor and Indra Hughes as organist - A blunt and no-nonsense Yorkshireman, Bairstow had an impressive career as a church musician, starting as an articled pupil at Westminster Abbey, then as organist of the parish churches in Wigan and Leeds (both prestigious positions) and finally as Organist of York Minster and Professor of Music at Durham University. This dramatic and large-scale anthem has been chosen for today’s concert not only because of its varied and substantial role for the choir, but also because of the impressive organ part which exploits the full range of sonorities available on a large romantic instrument. Almost every phrase calls for colourful and kaleidoscopic registration, from the incandescent climax in the middle of the piece to the delicacy of the Choir Echo Dulciana at the end.
Félix-Alexandre Guilmant 1837–1911: Symphony No. 1 in D minor for Organ and Orchestra, Op. 42 - Prodigiously talented from an early age, Guilmant was one of the leading figures of the French Romantic organ school. For 30 years he was organist of La Trinité, one of the important musical churches of Paris; he also travelled widely, making three hugely successful concert tours of America, while his frequent appearances in England regularly attracted audiences of around ten thousand. He was a prolific composer, mostly for the organ. His output includes eight Organ Sonatas, the first of which he later arranged and orchestrated to become the first Organ Symphony—an organ concerto in all but name. Guilmant was not keen on the idea of the organ as a kind of ‘one-man orchestra’ and wanted to demonstrate its true nobility as an independent instrument; in this he followed Berlioz, who said “the organ is Pope; the orchestra
Emperor…each is supreme in its own way”. In this Symphony, a veritable blockbuster, he undoubtedly succeeded in that aim: both organ and orchestra engage in a seamlessly integrated dialogue, each sharing the same musical material but also having its own independent contributions. Once again in Auckland Town Hall we are able to hear this kind of thrilling and uplifting music without the organ being drowned out by the orchestra.
I Introduction and Allegro
II Pastorale
III Finale
Performed by Auckland Youth Symphony Orchestra, Antun Poljanich as conductor and Paul Tarling as organist.
John Joseph Woods 1849–1934, arranged by Indra Hughes b.1968: The National Anthem of New Zealand sung by the Choirs and Audience (including Musica Sacra, The Graduate Choir, New Zealand, Viva Voce and the Auckland Youth Symphony Orchestra with Antun Poljanich as conductor and John Wells as organist - In July 1876, The Saturday Advertiser and New Zealand Literary Miscellany ran a competition for composers to set Thomas Bracken’s patriotic hymn God Defend New Zealand, written earlier in the 1870s. Woods was 27 at the time and was then teaching at the Roman Catholic School in the South Island gold mining town of Lawrence. It was nine o’clock at night when the advertiser reached him there. “On reading the beautiful and appealing words,” he wrote, “I immediately felt like one inspired…I set to work instantly and never left my seat ´till the music was completely finished late on in the night.” On
Christmas Day 1876, God Defend New Zealand had its first performance in Dunedin’s Queen’s Theatre. Played by the Royal Artillery Band and sung by the full complement of the Lydia Howard Burlesque and Opera Burle Troupe, it found immediate support and favour with the Dunedin public. The first Māori translation came in 1878; and in 1977, with the consent of Her Majesty the Queen, God Defend New Zealand was officially given equal status with God Save the Queen as the National Anthem of this country. Indra Hughes’ arrangement of the music was made for Queen Elizabeth’s visit to Auckland in 1995. From its original setting for brass and organ, he has arranged it for full orchestra for this concert.
BACKGROUND:
The organ is the first Orgelbau Klais instrument in New Zealand.
The specification was drawn up by John Wells, Indra Hughes, Kerry Stevens and consultant Ian Bell, and finalised in discussion with Orgelbau Klais. The chief designer of the instrument was Stefan Hilgendorf, working with 41 other Klais personnel for a total of 27,000 man hours over 26 months. There are 5291 pipes in total, of which 939 have been restored from the 1911 organ; 4371 pipes are made of a tin/lead alloy, 508 are of zinc and 412 are of wood. Timbers used in the organ are spruce, oak, pear, birch and kauri. The metal pipes weigh a total of six tonnes, the wooden pipes weigh 22 tonnes and the total weight of the organ is 40 tonnes. The largest pipe (Double Open Wood, bottom C) is 32 feet (9.75 metres) high with an interior volume of 2600 litres, the equivalent of 3466 bottles of wine. The organ’s lowest frequency is eight Hz (Pedal Gravissima); the highest is 17,000 Hz (Swell Furniture). There are ten lockable channels of memory for combination settings: each channel has ten general pistons, eight divisional pistons to each division of the organ and 1000 stepper settings: a total of 100 general pistons, 4000 divisional pistons and 10,000 stepper settings. Organists’ combination settings can be saved to, and downloaded from, USB drives. The organ is blown by three electric blowers in the basement of the Town Hall; they deliver a total power of 72 kilowatts and a maximum wind flow of 209 cubic metres per minute into 320 metres of wooden wind trunking (the length of three football fields), and then into 23 bellows (loaded with four tonnes of weights) and 18 main windchests. There is a full complement of reversible thumb and toe pistons, including forward and back stepper pistons on each manual, General Crescendo (60 stages): available by selecting “General Crescendo on Solo Pedal” Ventils: 4’ Reeds off; Orchestral Reeds Off; Ophicleide Off; Contra Posaune Off; Stage Light & Console Light; Adjustable bench; Boardwalks and balustraded staircases throughout the three-storey organ chamber; Provision for closed-circuit television cameras and monitors; ADSL internet connection for remote access to the organ’s electrical systems, which include 68 km of electrical wire and 1403; solenoids and magnets.
This inaugural concert presents the new organ in a variety of roles: as a solo instrument, accompanying choirs, with orchestra, and as a ceremonial civic instrument. The Auckland Town Hall Organ Trust’s ambition for the organ to encourage and inspire young musicians is reflected in the performances of the Auckland Youth Symphony Orchestra and one of New Zealand’s outstanding young organ students, Paul Tarling.
PERFORMERS:
JOHN WELLS is a graduate of Cambridge University where he was organ scholar at King’s College Chapel under Sir David Willcocks. He received his organ doctorate with high distinction from Indiana University after studies with Dr Oswald Ragatz. He is well known to New Zealand audiences as a concert performer, composer, recording artist and teacher. Tours have taken him to Australia, England, Poland, Germany, France and North America. Dr Wells is Organist to the University of Auckland, Visiting Artist-Tutor at the School of Music, and Organist for Musica Sacra; he is also Auckland City Organist and has played a key role in the successful campaign to rebuild the Town Hall organ. He is a Past President of the New Zealand Association of Organists which elected him an honorary music in New Zealand. He has made seven CDs including the very first New Zealand organ CD in 1989, and has recorded the entire Well-Tempered Clavier of Bach on the organ. He is much in demand as a composer and also tours to the Far East regularly as a music examiner.
INDRA HUGHES came from England to New Zealand in 1995 to take up the position of organist and Director of Music at Auckland’s Holy Trinity Cathedral. Since 1998 he has worked as a freelance organist, conductor, speaker, adjudicator and examiner, and is well known as a contributor of radio programmes for Radio New Zealand Concert. He received his early training at the Cathedral in Blackburn, Lancashire, and at Oriel College, Oxford, where he was Organ Scholar and also took a degree in Law. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists and also holds the College’s GH Knight Memorial Prize for the highest marks in the RCO Choir Training Diploma examinations. In 2007 he became the first person in New Zealand to be awarded the degree of Doctor of Musical Arts, with his thesis about the unfinished ending of JS Bach’s The Art of Fugue; and in the same year he was elected a Fellow of London’s Royal Society of Arts. He is Conductor of Musica Sacra and Organist and Choirmaster at All Saints.
PAUL TARLING was awarded a University of Auckland Scholarship in his final year at Nelson College, has recently completed a BMus in Organ Performance with Dr John Wells, and is in his final year of a BA in Philosophy. He also holds the ATCL and DipABRSM diplomas in Piano. In addition to other scholarships in both subjects, Paul has been awarded the University’s annual prize in music, the annual prize in performance and the senior prize in music; he was also a recent recipient of a DAAD German government scholarship and has just spent two months based in Leipzig. Paul is now in his fourth year as Belinda Godfrey Memorial Organ Scholar at Holy Trinity Cathedral in Parnell.
THE GRADUATE CHOIR, NZ, which has been referred to as “one of Auckland’s best kept secrets”, has earned an international reputation for performance of choral music at its best, for programming which is accessible and universal in appeal, for the musical integrity it brings to this repertoire, and for the warmth and breadth of its sound. Directed by Terence Maskell since its inception in 2001, the choir was awarded the Grand Prix as the outstanding choir of the inaugural Classic Sing competition in 2003: as a result, it was invited to perform at the Association of British Choral Directors convention in the UK in 2005. The choir has recorded three successful CDs and has performed regularly with
the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra.
TERENCE MASKELL received his early training from Emeritus Professor Peter Godfrey and the late Anthony Jennings. He was formerly Director of Music at Aorere College for twenty years, establishing a firm national and international reputation for fine choral groups there. For over nine years he was the conductor of the Auckland Youth Choir, a group which won numerous international awards under his direction; and for four years from 2006 he was the director of
the King’s College Chapel Choir and Boys’ Choir. In 2001 he undertook a global tour as a Sir Woolf Fisher Fellow (an award given for excellence in music education), concentrating especially on North American institutions noted for excellence in choral education. He has acted as guest conductor, accompanist, soloist, adjudicator, choral arranger and clinician on numerous occasions. He currently freelances as a teacher in choral direction and piano in a number of Auckland schools.
MUSICA SACRA is a chamber choir of around forty voices founded and conducted by Indra Hughes. The choir performs regularly in concerts, choral services, recordings and radio and television broadcasts. As the name suggests, the choir’s programmes are entirely of sacred repertoire, bringing to life music from the fifteenth century to premiered and commissioned works of the twenty-first century—though Musica Sacra is not a church choir. Two of the choir’s three CD recordings have been at number one in the NZ Classical Charts. In 2006 the choir became the proud owners of the Donald Barriball Memorial Chamber Organ, first played at the wedding of HRH the Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer in St Paul’s Cathedral, London. VIVA VOCE is a 30-voice chamber choir that has established a reputation for injecting vitality and fresh ideas into the New Zealand choral scene. Now in its 25th anniversary year, the choir has given more than three hundred performances and has premiered many new compositions. Specialising in the innovative programming and attractive presentation of a huge variety of music, Viva Voce strives equally for excellence and entertainment. Its members are trained singers and several have won success in this country’s top vocal competitions. Viva Voce has toured the country many times, broadcasts with Radio New Zealand and is regularly engaged
for choral-orchestral performances. Its most recent CD is the well-reviewed Snapshots: The Viva Voce Album.
JOHN ROSSER, the choir’s Musical Director, founded Viva Voce in 1985. He is also Associate Conductor and Chorus Master for the NBR New Zealand Opera and regularly guest conducts several other choirs and orchestras. Often engaged for workshops, adjudication and large choral events, he conducts the massed voices in Auckland’s annual Starlight Symphony, chairs the New Zealand Choral Federation and the Auckland Youth Choir, and was Artistic Director of Sing Aotearoa 09.
THE AUCKLAND YOUTH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA was formed in 1948 to bridge the gap between secondary school orchestras and adult professional groups. More than two thousand young adults between the ages of 18 and 24 have since passed through the ranks of the orchestra, having received expert training in orchestral playing. Today, the orchestra’s training role is still paramount, but it has an extended activity as a performing and touring symphony orchestra. The Auckland Youth Symphony Orchestra has presented concerts from Hobart to Cairns, from Invercargill to Kerikeri. It has made six extensive tours across the Tasman, one to Hawaii and one to Canada. Concerts have
been presented in 108 different towns and cities away from Auckland. The Auckland Youth Symphony Orchestra was the first youth orchestra to be formed in Australasia and is the leading training orchestra in New Zealand for professional musicians. ANTUN POLJANICH is the orchestra’s fourth Musical Director. Born in Croatia, Antun studied piano and theory at Dubrovnik School for Musical Education, then studied conducting at the University of Lubljana. Following postgraduate studies in Austria, he won a scholarship which took him to Leningrad for a three-year Master Course in Conducting at the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory. He then worked with the Leningrad State Symphony Orchestra, the Veneto Philharmonic, the Slovene and Croatian National Orchestras and other prominent orchestras in Russia and Europe.