Two Armidale-raised singers will come home this Sunday to perform Handel’s Messiah, under a conductor who first took up the baton for the work in the 1960s.
University of New England (UNE) Professor Emeritus Graham Maddox will lead the Armidale Choral Society’s 60-voice community choir in Lazenby Hall on Sunday, 15 November. It will be the ninth time the society has performed the work under his baton, after two months of intense rehearsals.
“It’s magnificent. It’s world-renowned,” Professor Maddox said.
“It’s one of the most famous choral pieces in existence.”
“Music lovers and Christians of New England can look forward to a moving auditory journey,” said UNE Adjunct Senior Lecturer Dr Karin von Strokirch.
Professor Maddox first conducted Messiah in the 1960s, staging two performances in Tamworth while working for the university there. With more than half a century of service to UNE as a Professor of Politics, he is an accomplished orchestral and choral conductor, a choral singer, an oboist, and a senior member of the Uniting Church.
He said the work never grows stale, with each performance offering a chance to try different tempos and approaches.
“It’s always fresh,” he said.
Handel wrote Messiah in just 24 days in 1741, setting an English libretto by Charles Jennens drawn from the Bible. Its 53 songs fall into three parts, covering Christ’s birth, his death and resurrection, and his glorification.
Unlike other oratorios of the time, Messiah does not tell a story.
“Its choruses and solos are a series of worshipful songs and meditations on the life, death and resurrection of Jesus,” Professor Maddox wrote in notes on the work.
At its heart is its most famous moment.
“It has right in the middle of it something that just about everybody knows, which is the Hallelujah Chorus,” Professor Maddox said.
“Most of it’s exciting anyway, with some very reflective solos and things in the meantime.”
“It’s a very mighty work, and the people who are singing it really adore it.”
Dr von Strokirch said the timing of the concert suits the work.
“Handel intended it to be performed at Easter but it is apt in the lead-up to Christmas too,” she said.
Professor Maddox agreed.
“It’s a very, very good preparation for celebrating Christmas,” he said. “It has these very, very joyful moments and it makes you elated.”
Messiah premiered in Dublin in April 1742 at a charity concert raising money for paupers in prison and a charity hospital. Handel later left the score to London’s Foundling Hospital, which cared for abandoned children.
“When it was first composed, it was all done for charities,” Professor Maddox said.
“The composer Handel played it over and over again every time he was raising money for charities for homeless children, for paupers in prison, for hospitals that were in trouble and so on.”
“A superb line-up of four professional soloists will perform in the Messiah with the sixty-strong choir,” Dr von Strokirch said.
Soprano Samantha Cobcroft grew up in Armidale and now runs her own studio and choir in the Hunter region. She has featured in Armidale productions over the past decade, including as a soloist in Requiem for the Living at Armidale’s Catholic cathedral earlier this year.
“I worked with Sam Cobcroft many times,” Professor Maddox said.
Mezzo-soprano Hannah Fraser, also from Armidale, is the granddaughter of former prime minister Malcolm Fraser. She specialises in historically informed performance, with a repertoire from early music to contemporary works.
She has performed with Pinchgut Opera, Bach Akademie Australia, the Australian Chamber Orchestra, the Melbourne, Canberra, and Tasmanian symphony orchestras, and The Song Company, which discovered her in 2014 and launched her career.
Ms Fraser won the Ex-Aequo Prize at the XIII Ancient Fatima Terzo Early Music Competition in Italy and was selected from around the world to join the Academy of Belcanto “Rodolfo Celletti”, run with the Festival della Valle d’Itria. She also works with Moorambilla Voices, nurturing young talent through art, dance, and music. She last gave a solo recital in Armidale in 2019.
Bass Andrew O’Connor performs regularly as a soloist with Opera Australia, Pinchgut Opera, and the Australian Chamber Orchestra, and has an upcoming concert with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.
Last month, Ms Fraser and Mr O’Connor sang in the Sydney Symphony Orchestra’s five-star production of Mendelssohn’s Elijah at the Sydney Opera House, alongside Sir Bryn Terfel and conducted by Simone Young.
“This is my first time with Hannah Fraser,” Professor Maddox said. “So she’s very famous now.”
In May, the pair performed The Long Moment, a new song cycle celebrating the words of Tim Winton, with ARIA award-winning Katie Noonan in the Australian Vocal Ensemble (AVÉ). Ms Noonan praised them at her own Armidale concert last week.
“They do everything,” Professor Maddox said. “We’re very, very privileged to have them, I assure you.”
Tenor Kent McIntosh grew up in New Zealand and spent 20 years with Opera Australia. He is well known to Armidale audiences for his impassioned performances.
The choir and soloists will be accompanied by a handpicked chamber ensemble led by Robert van Gend, a musician, singer, and orchestral and choral conductor. Rising string players Caleb Murray, Alma Kanety, and Sam Russell are among the ensemble.
“Quite a small group, but they’re very good,” Professor Maddox said. “I think it’ll go over very well.”
Asked which moment he most looks forward to, Professor Maddox did not hesitate.
“Always Hallelujah,” he said.
He also singled out The Trumpet Shall Sound, a solo for bass and trumpet, which he called very, very inspiring.
“The climax of the last chorus is called Worthy is the Lamb, and it’s very, very majestic and very, very moving,” he said.
More than 280 years after its premiere, the work remains a fixture of concert halls everywhere.
“It now seems to live forever, throughout the whole world,” Professor Maddox wrote.
- When: 3pm, Sunday, 15 November
- Where: Lazenby Hall, University of New England, Armidale
- Tickets: $35 full price, $20 concession
“To avoid queues and get the seat of your choice, we recommend that you book in advance,” Dr von Strokirch said.
Tickets are available at https://www.trybooking.com/au/event/1651758
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