PAST CONCERTS
REVIEW OF SEPTEMBER 2025 CONCERT
A Feast of Delights
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The quality of the performances of SMCO has been increasingly fine and was quite splendid in their most recent early-spring concert. Archie Lamont-Bowden was Concertmaster and Luka Venter conducted the orchestra for the first time. Venter’s experience is wide – conducting, singing countertenor, composing and writing. The concert featured soprano Katherine Winitana in Samuel Barber's Knoxville Summer of 1915. The whole performance was a tour de force from both conductor and players.
REVIEW OF AUGUST 2025 CONCERT
The Romantic's Cello
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SMCO’s recent mid-winter concert featured Dvorak’s Serenade for Winds, Cello and Double bass, Haydn’s Symphony No 100 and Schumann’s Cello Concerto, with Lev Sivkov as soloist. Sivkov, truly international, was born in Russia, has lived, studied and performed in Switzerland, Germany, USA, Denmark and England. He has been performing at various concert venues in NZ this year. It was a huge privilege for orchestra and audience alike to hear him play at St Matthew’s. The orchestra was conducted by Michael Joel with Indiana Williamson as guest concertmaster
REVIEW OF JUNE 2025 CONCERT
Mozart Magic
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Mozart magic certainly made up the main courses but two short works by Adrien de Croy and Jacques Ibert were appealing interludes. David Sharp’s conducting style was wonderful to watch – almost dance like. It is always good to see talented New Zealanders return and his rapport with the orchestra was very visible, the players following him closely as if at one with him.
REVIEW OF MAY 2025 CONCERT
Ludwig and Diedre
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Despite dire warnings of thunderstorms and storms, the loyal audience of St Matthew’s Chamber Orchestra turned up to fill the church for their May concert. More than rain would deter them from the chance to hear their favourite pianist Diedre Irons play Beethoven with the orchestra. Esther Oh was guest concertmaster and the orchestra’s musical director Michael Joel was conductor.
REVIEW OF OCTOBER 2024 CONCERT
A Little Pastoral Serenade
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This concert was played to a capacity audience – the loyal following of the orchestra and some possibly drawn by the opportunity to see and hear harpist Ingrid Bauer perform the Rodrigo Concierto Serenata. They might well become regulars.
REVIEW OF SEPTEMBER 2024 CONCERT
Mozart Larks
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Performing to an enthusiastic audience & full house created a great “Vibe” at the St Matthews Chamber Orchestra Concert on Sunday. Michael Joel conducted, with violinist Lara Hall performing Mozart’s 4th Violin Concerto and Vaughan Williams' A Lark Ascending, as well as conducting the first movement of Lilburn Diversions for String Orchestra
REVIEW OF AUGUST 2024 CONCERT
Franz Meets Wolfgang
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On a squally Auckland Winters Day, the brave who ventured out were rewarded at St Matthew’s in the City. St Matthew’s Chamber Orchestra, along with soloist Sylvia Jiang & conductor Euan Safey, transported us on a journey starting in the 1950’s NZ, with the Dorothy Freed Suite for String Orchestra, through Mozart's Piano Concerto No 25 and culminating in Schubert's Symphony No 5
REVIEW OF MAY 2024 CONCERT
Diedre's Beethoven
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What a magical trio of works which made up the second of St Matthew’s Chamber Orchestra’s 2024 Subscription series. Conductor Michael Joel, always popular with the orchestra and audience, was at his very best. Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto with Diedre Irons as soloist was riveting. The orchestra continues to amaze with its responsiveness, sensitivity and technical skill
REVIEW OF MARCH 2024 CONCERT
A Stunning Afternoon​
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The near-capacity audience at The Dancing Violin, the first concert in the 2024 season, were treated to a stunning afternoon. Harris Leung was a superb concert master and David Kay, conducted with a brisk beat, his warm rapport with the players, very obvious. Edouard Lalo’s Symphonie Espagnole Op. 21 brought Martin Riseley, one of New Zealand’s greatest violin talents, to the podium. It was a tour de force and received with rapturous applause
REVIEW OF AUGUST 2023 CONCERT
Oboe Brilliance
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A highly successful concert, featuring a SMCO-commissioned work by Louise Webster, played with brilliance by NZ oboist Thomas Hutchinson. Conducted by Michael Joel, the orchestra also played a lively early Mozart symphony, and Mendelssohn's jubilant Italian symphony.
REVIEW OF JUNE 2023 CONCERT
Classical Grace and Elegance
St Matthew’s Chamber Orchestra’s previous concert saw its audience and players well entrenched in 20th century jazz idioms. In this, their latest performance, we were back in the late-eighteenth and first half of the nineteenth century. Michael Joel, the orchestra’s musical director, is a great favourite with musicians and audience, and brought all the grace and charm of Fanny Mendelssohn, Mozart, and Schubert to a very appreciative audience.