Magical concert by Mozart, Madden

• Published date: 01 December 2022
• Publication title: Central Otago News

The Central Otago Regional Choir will take to the stage for three days of performances of the ‘‘Magical Music from Mozart to Madden’’ concert, starting in Wanaka tomorrow

The performances will be conducted by New Zealand composer Richard Madden.

He said the process behind the texts chosen to play varied.

‘‘I tend to choose texts that I find interesting and most often other composers have used as well, and set to music because they’re famous texts. And they inspire us.

‘‘The language is beautiful and the sentiments and the imagery that the text paints helps, which encourages the composer to find ways to reflect what’s in the text,’’ Mr Madden said.

Rehearsals with the choir began at the end of August to avoid driving in the worst of winter.

‘‘They have June, July, August off because members come from all over.’’

The choir has just over 30 members this year, but has only two resident bassists.

‘‘We seem to have a reasonable number of tenors, so some of the cathedral men, three of them come up as bassists and will join the choir for the concerts, which is really...