William Dart Photo: RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farelly
The biggest news from RNZ Concert this month is that New Horizons is drawing to a close.
After 45 years of writing and presenting our weekly all-genre music review programme, William Dart is due a nice cup of tea and a lie down. Thank you, William, for your amazing contribution to music in New Zealand.
Read more about William's time with RNZ here, and you can continue to listen to the New Horizons back catalogue, including a tribute show and his farewell Christmas special, here.
Here are some of RNZ Concert's holiday season highlights for you to enjoy on the radio or online in coming days.
Tuesday 24 December: Christmas Eve
Wellington Cathedral of St Paul: A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols Photo: Wellington Cathedral of St Paul
8 pm Music Alive: Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at the Wellington Cathedral of St. Paul
The Choir of Wellington Cathedral of St Paul, Cathedral Choristers, Tom Chatterton (organ)/Michael Stewart (2023)
This Christian service traditionally occurs on Christmas Eve. Its advent marked carols being brought inside the church for the first time, in part to lure people away from the taverns. Carols and hymns are interspersed with bible readings appropriate to the season. You can read and sing along with the words of the service here:
Wednesday 25 December: Christmas Day
11 am Christmas Church Service
Celebrate Christmas Day with a service of readings, reflections and prayers from Wellington Central Baptist Church, and carols from guest choir, Supertonic.
(Also broadcast at 7am on RNZ National)
5:30 pm New Horizons Christmas Special (Final)
Your last chance to hear a new episode of New Horizons on the radio. Written and presented by William Dart, produced by Tim Dodd. Listen to the New Horizons back catalogue on our website here
6.30pm Music Alive: Hodie! Christmas with The Tudor Consort
The Tudor Consort in Wellington’s Cathedral of St. Paul in the last light of the sun, opening a programme of Christmas anthems and motets from December 2023.
Photo: Matthew Painter/Creative Commons
Music director Michael Stewart constructed a programme around Poulenc’s Four Motets for Christmas Time. Written in the middle of the twentieth century, each motet is set in a different scene from the nativity: In the manger surrounded by farm animals, in the fields with shepherds speaking to angels, the three magi rejoicing as they follow the star, and of course, the joy in heaven at Christ’s birth.
Each of these motets sets ancient Latin texts that composers have used throughout the centuries, and we’ll hear their versions paired with Poulenc’s modern settings. Compositions from Palestrina, de Lassus, Victoria and Sweelinck are also joined by modern composers including Berg, Distler, and Howells.
There is even an opportunity to for the audience sing along with the choir in some well-known carols.
8 pm Music Alive: Auckland Philharmonia - Celebrate Christmas 2024
The Auckland Philharmonia presents its traditional end-of-the-year celebration in Holy Trinity Cathedral with the usual mix of the joyous and the contemplative. There’s music by, among others, Bach, Poulenc, Rutter, Delius along with a new carol by popular Auckland composer Chris Artley getting its Aotearoa premiere. This year the orchestra is conducted by the much-respected Stephen Layton from the UK, and as well as their regular partners for this event the Graduate Choir New Zealand, they are joined by the young tenor whose star is very much on the rise, Emmanuel Fonoti-Fuimaono.
Thursday 26 December: Boxing Day
Signature Choir and the NZSO on stage at Spark Arena, Auckland. Photo: Penina Momoisea, Coconet TV
8 pm Music Alive: NZSO & Signature Choir - Mana Moana live at Spark Arena
Mana Moana celebrates the Pacific Islands through music. The Auckland concert features the Signature Choir from Wellington. But this time they are joined by their Auckland friends to swell the ranks of the choir to eighty voices. They sing with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra under conductor Brent Stewart. Together they make a huge sound that fills the Spark Arena in Auckland. (2023)
Monday 30 December 2024
8 pm Music Alive: NZSO Arias
Eliza Boom (soprano) Paul O’Neill (tenor), New Zealand SO/ José Luis Gomez
"Here’s one for the opera lovers! In this concert, we celebrate some of the most iconic music ever written for Italian opera houses. Verdi’s Overture from La forza del destino is a typical example of Italian heart-stirring drama – though Kiwi audiences may better remember its main theme from a certain beer commercial! Mascagni’s “Intermezzo” from Cavelleria rusticana remains one of the most performed works from Mascagni’s body of work, thanks to its irresistibly singable melodies.
"Puccini arguably provides the best introduction to the world of opera, thanks to the emotional intensity and directness of his music. So both new and longtime opera fans will delight in our selection of the most memorable arias and scenes from his repertoire. “Mi chiamano Mimi” and “O soave Fanciulla” from La bohème, “O mio babbino caro” from Gianni Schicchi, and “Nessun dorma” from Turandot are sure to raise the roof – and fill the heart." - NZSO (2024)
Tues 31 Dec: New Year’s Eve
The Phoenix Foundation with the NZSO Photo: RNZ/Kirsten Johnstone
8 pm Music Alive: The NZSO & The Phoenix Foundation - Celebrate!
Top New Zealand composers and arrangers Gareth Farr, Claire Cowan, Chris Gendall and Hamish Oliver worked with The Phoenix Foundation and NZSO conductor Hamish McKeich to create orchestral versions of the band’s much-loved works.
“There is no sound on earth quite like a real symphony orchestra,” says The Phoenix Foundation’s Samuel Scott. “This is still 100 per cent The Phoenix Foundation - just with over 60 musicians and the skills of the conductor and arranger turning it up to 11.” (2018)
Sunday 1 January: New Year’s Day
6 am – 8 pm Setting the Score encore
8 pm Music Alive: Auckland Philharmonia: Viennese Feast
The Auckland Philharmonia presents an evening of music from and inspired by the city of Vienna, that Austro-Hungarian powerhouse of 18th and 19th century composition, with their guests violinist Amalia Hall and conductor Christoph Altstaedt.
Evergreen online treats:
Music and Arts interviews with Bryan Crump
Explore conversations with music makers and performers from around Aotearoa and across the world, as heard Mon - Friday during Three to Seven with Bryan Crump
The Magpie House
The overgrown jungle of a garden is where NZ’s ‘father of classical music composition’ Douglas Lilburn liked to spend time growing vegetables and listening to the Tūī. Enjoy the stories of a house and its inhabitants, their search for identity and a place to call home. (2022)
These Hopeful Machines
A six-part series in which James Gardner traces a personal path through the evolving world of electronic music and interviews some of the pioneers who made it happen. Over 100 years of recording techniques, electronic instruments and gizmos ... their use in popular music, art music and their position in Western culture. (2013)
WATCH: 12,000 Miles
This documentary follows the four Kiwi pipe bands that travelled to the 2023 World Pipe Band Championships in Glasgow—Auckland and District, Canterbury Caledonian Society, Manawatu Scottish, and St Andrew's College—from the very start of their campaigns right through to the competition at Glasgow Green. Showcasing the true antipodean flavour of New Zealand pipe-banding, Kiwis from all walks of life show what it takes to travel the 12,000 Miles (18,000 km) each year to pit themselves against the best in the business.
