Marvelous reviews for Gemma New and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra's performance of Handel's Messiah

New leads the NZSO in a performance of Handel’s Messiah at Michael Fowler Centre in Wellington (Photo credit: Rosa Woods)

A big ‘Hallelujah’ for New and the NZSO’s performance in Wellington, just in time for the Holidays
By Max Rashbrooke
Stuff Magazine
December 14, 2020

From the first moments it felt like we were in the hands of a master. Conductor Gemma New, a study in pale, concentrated energy, had complete control over the stunning orchestral writing of Handel’s famous Messiah.

Committed, as is the modern trend, to a story-telling Messiah and not just a beautiful sound, she worked each of the 47 movements into its own little gem, distinct from all the others. Right from the opening ‘Sinfony’, its string parts bright and darting, New was committed also to a distinctively baroque dynamic, with sudden and sharp contrasts of volume and tone.

Unsurprisingly, the playing from a stripped-back symphony orchestra was superb. I still have a fondness for the all-guns-blazing, harpsichord-disdaining approach of a Sir Thomas Beecham. But the advantage of the more authentically baroque approach is a greater fineness of detail that allows the delicately interwoven harmonic lines to come to the surface.

This advantage was constantly on show here. The ‘Pifa’ was a drowsy, murmuring summer, while the strings on ‘He was despised’ were pure pleasure, a perfectly balanced and burnished sound.

In this performance, though, we were all singers: New encouraged the audience not just to stand but also to join in the famous Hallelujah Chorus. That moment of unity, alongside the sustained brilliance of the musical drama, may have contributed to the sustained applause from the near-capacity crowd. Hallelujah indeed.

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