William Chong

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s blockbuster musical made a triumphant return to the New Zealand stage this week, as the first of a series of sold-out performances bade haere-mai to one of the greatest musicals of all time. Performing in Auckland from 14 Oct 2008 to 16 Nov 2008, “The Phantom of the Opera“ is a critically-acclaimed masterpiece that features on the must-see-before-I-die list of even the mildest of musically-inclined punters. New Zealand-based Phanatics, myself included, have waited almost a generation for memorable tunes like Music of the Night and All I Ask of You to fill the cavernous Civic Theatre in Auckland – the last time Phantom hit our shores was in 1997 during an Australasian tour that totalled a record 3,073 performances.

Breathtaking Gothic-inspired scenery and quickfire set changes; the famous scene with the boat on a misty, underground lake; commanding performances by the Australasian-based cast of 37 performers; pyrotechnics, slick stagecraft and magical sleight-of-hand: these were some of the highlights of a well-received Saturday evening marquee perfomance (18 Oct 2008; 7.30pm).

Australian fans are familiar the voice of Anthony Warlow – it’s electrifying, majestic, and now better acquainted with the appreciative ears of Kiwiland. His performance as the Phantom – a deranged, disfigured genius composer living in a cavernous lair underneath the Opera Populaire in Paris – was enthralling and engaging to both first-time audiences and lip-syncing veterans of the production.

The role of tortured chorus-girl turned protegé Christine Daae was handled commendably by Ana Marina, who showed a proficiency in her singing of songs such as Think of Me and Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again. One sometimes felt that the innocence of the character was lost in her mature-sounding voice; at times the Phantom seemed to be the more youthful and playful of the tragic couple. There were other standout characters of the night, such as the tender, almost metrosexual portrayal of Raoul (he almost looked content with being caught by the Phantom’s hang-man lasso during the climax of the show). The comedic trifecta of André, Firmin and the prima donna Carlotta (played by New Zealander Andrea Creighton) drew frequent laughs with their posturing, seen most effectively during a scene where the characters flummoxed over the multitude of notes being sent by the Phantom (Notes…). Admittedly, the song Prima Donna suffered a little from the bevy of characters onstage trying to simultaneously sing over each other a la some sort of NZ prime ministers’ debate.

It’s not just the actors and actresses that make the show: Phantom of the Opera features an extravagant set that boasts a spaceship-like chandelier, candelabras that emerge from the stage, and incredibly detailed and ornate scenes like Christine’s dressing room (featuring an illusory one-way mirror from where the Phantom makes his first appearance). Characters were dressed up in a kaleidoscope of colours and outfits, most notably during the Masquerade sequence which dazzled the eyes in a juxtaposition of costuming and crisp choreography.

This is an internationally-acclaimed show on a level of professionalism streets ahead of the competition – catch it while you can, or wait another 11 years (or more) to savour the lush and romantic offering of this West End classic.

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17 August 2008 Р4pm, Hollywood Caf̩ @ Westfield Pakuranga

Williamchong.com - This author delves into the rise of the phoenix-like Wesleyan Methodist Church of New Zealand, and shares coffee and conversation with the denomination’s National Superintendent, East City Wesleyan (ECW) Senior Pastor and avid aviation historian Rev Richard Waugh (QSM BA LTh STh MBA).

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Were you a part of the ECW opening celebrations? Had a hand in the Wesleyan Methodist church history? Share your thoughts here.

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AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND – A drive through the industrial kaleidoscope east of the Tamaki River offers a mish-mash of factory outlets, imposing high-voltage pylons and small retail and residential cliques resembling a multi-lingual Monopoly streetscape. In one of the artery-like perfusions that included ethnic supermarkets, food outlets and a gated residential community, a pitch-coated building carries a 12-foot high cross that’s coloured white as a light on the proverbial hill.

Under the pastoral direction of Rev Richard Waugh, East City Wesleyan (ECW) has graduated from meeting in high school auditoriums (since 2000) to boldly staking out its permanent place in the East Tamaki/Burswood area, officially opening its doors to the public during an Open Weekend that was well-publicised in local print media. On the 15th of August, 150 showed up to a “Surge” youth rally featuring Christian pop/rock band Ember Days; 100 visitors filtered through on Saturday the 16th in an “Open Day”; and a capacity 300-strong congregation had attended the Opening and Dedication Service a week earlier. I was fortunate enough to share a coffee and conversation with the Reverend, taking the opportunity to get some of his thoughts on ECW, the Wesleyan Methodist movement in NZ, the general Christian climate in New Zealand today and what he’s keeping an eye out for in the future.

Church identity in a secular age

I first ask Rev Waugh what the intention of ECW’s move into the area was, and the initial reaction from the local community. He explains, “That was an experiment in terms of getting commercial advertisers to wrap around a very big feature on the church, where I explained the story and the background of the church.” It’s no mean feat to spend thousands of dollars on confronting the public about ECW with a double-page advertorial spread, but Rev Waugh’s confident the coverage-purchase worked. “We had quite a few non-believers, where some of our young people invited their friends and so on: and I think frankly, getting towards a secular age, you have to come and put it before people: “This is what the church does. Our church is about grace and truth.’”

I pose the next question: “So you’ve set out with a great opening: once the buzz dies down, what’s your long-term vision in terms of ECW?”

“Our vision’s always been for ECW to be a church of regional, if not national influence. So my goal is for ECW to be the preeminent church in the John Wesleyan tradition. I wouldn’t see it as a competition with other parts of the Body of Christ, but within the WM stream we want to be the largest multicultural church.”

Evangelical, Wesleyan, Holiness: Defining the NZ Wesleyan Methodist

Next, I ask Rev Waugh: “For someone that doesn’t know the term at all, how would you sum up the Wesleyan Methodist tradition?” He takes a sip from his espresso, before recounting the history of John Wesley, an Anglican clergyman who took the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the villages and slum suburbs of 18th-century England on horseback, when no one else at that time from the Church of England would. Rev Waugh shares with me his admiration for the way in which Wesley could combine his doctrinal faith with an evangelical passion for the lost. Critics mocked Wesley’s “Methodist” attitude to religious observance, self-discipline and untiring social service and the name stuck with his followers since. What was originally an English revival crossed the Atlantic and over the centuries matured into a number of Methodist movements, one of them the Wesleyan Methodist denomination.

So do Wesleyans think of their namesake as a saint?

“He was anything but a Saint. He had a disastrous marriage, for example. But we do see him as a mentor and someone who, at a junction of history, was able to hold things together in a Biblical way that is still very inspiring, and to spread ‘Scriptural Holiness’ throughout the land.”

I listen as Rev Waugh briefly explains the term, referring to a Christian’s process of ongoing sanctification.

“John Wesley was a master at holding seemingly opposing things in a creative tension – particularly social action and evangelism. When you fall either way, things can become out of balance – in New Zealand, most Methodist churches have fallen to the social gospel,” Rev Waugh added.

Which is?

“Very liberal theology, passionate about the disadvantaged – but they’ve lost their evangelism. There’s a whole story about the Methodist Church and how it was once the leading evangelical denomination, and now it’s just a shadow of its former self.”

There’s a sense of wistfulness in Rev Waugh’s voice describing the decline of New Zealand’s “oldline” Methodist churches during our conversation. Indeed, ECW’s formation in 2000 was the end result of a number of long-suffering years and painful split from the national Methodist Church, in which Rev Waugh himself spoke out in a 1998 report against a Church hierarchy now “driven by a radical left-wing theology which has little or no place for traditional Christian confessional statements or doctrinal understandings.”* The formation of the Wesleyan denomination in New Zealand arose from a culmination of years of much-publicised political tension, differing theology and hair-splitting disagreements on the ordination of homosexual Ministers – yet a decade on, Rev Waugh seems to take a pragmatic view of his former denomination that’s today “almost as liberal as the Quakers.”

Of all that, I ask him plainly: “Would you call the Wesleyan movement a ‘reaction’ church?”

He pauses, and then responds: “I think the Wesleyan Methodist Church of New Zealand is really a rebirth.”

Views from a veteran servant

A seasoned veteran of a generation’s worth of church committees and community boards, Rev Waugh has so far spoken more eloquently than I’ve been offering questions. Our conversation carries on over a range of issues in which he offers well-thought and fairly open insights on.

Defining liberal theology:

RW: “Liberal theology would say that the Bible is a source of truth, but God speaks in many other ways. And some parts of the Bible no longer have any authority. In this light, for example [in liberal theology] homosexuals and lesbians are entitled to be ministers like everyone else because God has created them that way. And [in liberal theology] of course it’s a woman’s right to have an abortion – so moral issues always read to the left.”

Regarding church denominations:

RW: “Firstly, you can’t be independent – you’re better off making a decision about the theological emphases that other streams have, not that necessarily any one of them is better than the other. At their best, they all contribute to the richness of the whole Body of Christ in a healthy way. People who stand in my stream with me, we need to know who we are, and how we relate to Presbyterians, Baptists, whoever. My contention is that every denomination has a part to play in the Body of Christ.”

Regarding women in leadership:

RW: “Again, we go back to Wesley: he was very influenced by his mother [Susannah Wesley], a passionate lady and a great disciple. Despite living in a patriarchal age, he came to the realisation that if women are spiritually gifted in preaching and teaching, you have to ultimately allow women to be equal in ministry to men. Otherwise you have to say that God gives spiritual gifts to men, but not to women. In the NZ Wesleyan church, a third of our pastors are ordained pastors and licensed ministers.

And what of 1 Tim 2:8-15?

RW: “You can find isolated verses to prop up that argument, but I think at the end of the day they fall down as a house of cards. I think you have to look at the totality of Scripture – in Christ neither male nor female – and you have to face up to other things that are supporting an argument. I think the Holy Spirit has really spoken through church history, from New Testament times, of women being in places of authority and teaching. You’d have to deny all that – I wouldn’t be in a position to do so.”

Regarding the “emergent church”:

RW: “Well I think it’s a legitimate part of the diverse expression – we have one of our congregations, cession|community would almost drop into that category, much as they might resist being boxed together. I’ve been to a number of emergent churches [Rev Waugh spent a year visiting churches in different countries as part of his D.Min studies at Asbury Theological Seminary], and I think most of them are orthodox-believing – there’s sometimes concern about whether they’re pushing beyond what the church has always affirmed. Some people think that this might be the church of the future – I don’t actually believe that, because I think the Body of Christ is always very diverse. It’s not going to take over everything else, but I think the emergent church is one doorway to the Kingdom.”

Regarding big Gospels and little gospels:

RW: “There are many ways of expressing what a ‘Salvific’ message is. For some people coming through the substitutionary [atonement] view, there are actually other ways of expressing it. I actually think in New Zealand secular society, grace is a very powerful message to tackle people with, ultimate grace: rather than talking about the cross straight away, or sin straight away. I don’t think necessarily that many younger people have a great awareness of their sins. But if you talk about aspirations, life in all its fullness, frankly I think that presses better buttons for many people. It’s legitimate for different parts of the Body to be promoting different parts of the Gospel – there’s plenty of room, as long as people are fundamentally within the orthodoxy of the church, basically affirming what has always been affirmed.”

Regarding interfaith dialogue:

RW: “That’s an interesting question, it is an increasing issue in Auckland – [for example,] the Buddhist temple‘s thrown that into sharp belief. As Christians, we have an exclusive view on salvation in Christ. You can’t give that away: though interestingly, most of the inter-religious dialogue in New Zealand has been dominated by liberal Christians. But I don’t think they can act with integrity when talking with Muslims and Buddhists, because they don’t represent the main Body of Christ anymore. You can only interact with other religions if you know who you are as a Christian – if you’re lost, you’re only going to get even more lost talking to them.”

The right renewal of Evangelicals

The recurring theme of our conversation seems to be Rev Waugh’s confidence in New Zealand’s ecumenical movement: across a number of denominations, like-minded churches that affirm Scripture as God-given authority, savour Biblically orthodox foundations and share a common zeal for sharing the Good News are a gradually growing influence. “There’s a large movement across the Body of Christ that’s pushing the mainline Churches [Presbyterian, Anglican, Methodist], or you could call them ‘oldline’ Churches: and they’re saying ‘no – here’s a unity that’s built on Biblical orthodoxy and being together,’” declared Rev Waugh.

With greater unity comes greater political conviction, it seems – Rev Waugh talks excitedly about movements such as Vision Network of New Zealand, an ecumenical organisation of over 500 member churches, congregation and church agencies, that are “changing the Body of Christ, changing how it reacts politically and how it speaks out.” There’s evidence of action on their website, with a flurry of position papers, discussions and conferences having a noticeably evangelical underpinning. Rev Waugh feels that VNNZ’s collaborative nature so far engages constructively with other churches “in a way that liberal church leaders wouldn’t have a chance.”

He notes, “There’s a maturing of the Evangelical view of what it takes to be a thinking Christian today.”

I ask whether there were any challenges to working with such a diverse group of churches.

“There’s the liberal challenge,” he replies, returning to a subject that he feels strongly about. Rev Waugh reflects on the local scene 25 years ago when the traditional denominations (Anglican, Methodist, Presbyterian) were dominant and prided themselves in being liberal, though not “radical-liberal”. He claims that today they’re being increasingly marginalised as the Church in New Zealand shifts to a more Evangelical, Bible-believing base. Rev Waugh cites the 2006 Presbyterian General Assembly’s decision to reaffirm that “no practising homosexual could be a candidate for licensed, ordained ministry” as a strong indicator of a prevailing Biblical orthodoxy today. It’s definitely a contrast from the days when theologian Lloyd Geering, then head of the Presbyterian Theological College, in 1967 could boldly declare: “Christ was not resurrected from the grave.”

A ongoing orthodoxy

Over the course of the hour, Rev Waugh has come across as a man of God who�s passionately evangelical, passionately orthodox. We’ve woven our way through topics without too much specificity, yet I’m impressed with the way he’s approached each question with thought and precision. It will be interesting to follow the progress of the ECW flock as the New Zealand church climate moves through its seasons, and which way the progressive/orthodox pendulum will swing over the next few years (or whether the pendulum stays relevant) remains to be seen. But before we go our separate ways, I pluck up the courage to ask the most important question of all.

“What would be the most important thing you’d want to tell someone who wasn’t a Christian?”

There’s a considered pause as Rev Waugh collects his thoughts.

“I’d want to say that they’re missing out on the quality of living and loving that without Jesus Christ, is just not possible. I’d want to quote to them John 10:10, on the fullness of life. That even if you think you’ve got a balanced and happy life, you can find that much more fulfilment as Christ’s follower.”

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Further reading:

Rowe K. Beyond the Tamaki: celebrating 150 years of Methodism in Howick-Pakuranga. Auckland: Barry Crichton, 2002. ISBN: 0473010518.
Investigate Magazine – Writer Bernard Moran’s angle on the homosexual debate that polarised (and split) the Methodist Church of New Zealand.

Disclosures: None to declare.
Email the author: lemmingz (at) gmail (dot) com

NZ freelance health writer Noel O’Hare recently wrote about a weight-loss study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in July 2008. In his stuff.co.nz opinion piece, O’Hare, who reads as a vocal supporter of the Atkins method of low-carb dieting, champions the Israeli study as strong evidence that a low-carb diet is superior to a low-fat diet.

Before everyone starts jumping on the worship Dr Atkins bandwagon, I’d just like to point out a passage in the methods section from the article itself, which outlines what the low-carb diet actually was:

Low-Carbohydrate Diet

The low-carbohydrate, non restricted-calorie diet aimed to provide 20 g of carbohydrates per day for the 2-month induction phase and immediately after religious holidays, with a gradual increase to a maximum of 120 g per day to maintain the weight loss. The intakes of total calories, protein, and fat were not limited. However, the participants were counseled to choose vegetarian sources of fat and protein and to avoid trans fat. The diet was based on the Atkins diet (see Supplementary Appendix 2).

So here are a few points that I thought up:

1) The total caloric intake wasn’t regulated (in the other two diets, it was at 1500kcal/day for women and 1800kcal/day for men). Fair fight? Perhaps the low-carb group were consuming fewer calories than the other two groups and therefore lost more weight.
2) Is it really a genuine Atkin’s diet if participants were “counseled to choose vegetarian sources of fat and protein and to avoid trans fat”? When I think Atkins, I think steaks. Lots. of. steaks. mmmm.
3) The fine print at the bottom of the article has this to say: “Supported by the Nuclear Research Center Negev (NRCN), the Dr. Robert C. and Veronica Atkins Research Foundation, and the S. Daniel Abraham International Center for Health and Nutrition, Ben-Gurion University, Israel.” Other than the fact that this blogging correspondent sounds like he could be working for the Atkins Foundation, this study seems to be receiving direct support from the Atkins Foundation. Bias, anyone?

I could say more, but I think it’s probably a good idea to read the NEJM study carefully – “Think before you swallow”. And I guess that goes for anything that we’re asked to believe, in any context.

Website: http://www.cession.org.nz; Ph: (09) 279 9332; The Depot, Lloyd Elsmore Park, Pakuranga; Senior Pastor/Speaker: Brett Jones; Sermon topic: “Bland Death Auto Pt 1: It Ain’t Over Till It’s Over”; 21.6.08; 5:45pm.

Rating: nearly AA
(A=return worshipper, AA=excellent and growing, AAA=must be my home church lol)

You’ll like this church if you: like new ways of presenting Jesus Christ in a postmodern generation; seek a balance between youth-centered relevance and timeless truth, have an aversion to fake happy clapping and/or sitting amongst the pew masses, are a Christian looking for an open-minded church environment, want a church where it’s easy to get to know everyone.

You won’t like this church if you: are a true-blue emergent dude/dudette, don’t like holding on to early-church traditions such as Lent and the Stations of the Cross, hold to a more conservative/fundamental approach to church services, would be confused in a dark room on a Sunday evening, like to slip in and slip out of church anonymously.

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Dim lighting and roundtable seating. Bible readings in Klingon. Blogging church elders. Re-enactments of Grand Theft Auto 4 cutscenes. Playstation metaphors juxtaposed with James chapter 1. Yes, this is a church, and a surprisingly faithful one at that.

To me, cession|community is much like the TNIV translation of the Bible. They’re both narrative-driven, gender neutral, very easily accessible to young-at-hearts, with more of the legalistics tucked away in a not-worth-the-conflict box or left open-ended. And much like the TNIV, cession would probably be frowned upon by more conservative folks that don’t believe that the church-wheel ever needs revisioning/reinventing.

This was our first evening church service in a long time, and we arrived just as their “chow” session was finishing up. Senior Pastor Brett Jones himself (oooooh) showed us into a room set out like a dinner show: tablecloth-draped round tables with coffee chatter amongst patrons of Jesus Christ. We were feeling a bit shy and uninitiated to this unique set up and Jones was kind enough to “hide us in a corner”. We sat down in eager anticipation and watched the projected countdown clock behind the stage, well, count down to cession|launch.

Worship: Run-of-the-mill CCM, this would probably be the most “mainstream church” aspect of cession. An energetic and lively six-pack of worship bandies worked with a chilled out of about 40-odd worshippers responding with about the same fervour as café patrons would respond to Norah Jones on the muzak tracks. The music was tight and polished, (“mad awesome riffs” etc), but I liked the sincerity of the songs they chose that night. As a personal note, I’m pretty partial to any song set that includes Brooke Fraser-penned praises.

Teaching: An English-subtitled, Cantonese video of a dysfunctional family took me by surprise first (and was a bit tricky to piece together), but I eventually recognised it as an introduction to struggles and trials in life. Senior pastor Brett Jones then took the stage, sharing clear and eloquent thoughts on a 4-part series on the book of James. As per the out-of-the-box creative core presentation ethos, the teaching is presented within the metaphor of video gaming, if you ever wanted teaching notes with Playstation controller configurations on them, this church will appeal.

Digesting the teaching, I felt that analogy between the decision-making in a video game was pretty effective in illustrating points such as:

• considering the gameplay in life’s trials and whether it’s really about the miserable things
• sharpening up our wisdom/hand-eye coordination/anything by asking for God’s help
• our free will in choosing not to repeat our mistakes and challenging our sin-nature programming.

I also appreciated Jones’s willingness to share real stories and real struggles (including a heart-wrenching ancedote of sexual temptation) to illustrate how tough living the Christian life can get and that even when you’ve slipped up horribly, there’s still The Light at the end of the tunnel.

Church history: Their own history page does it best, but I will add that their name comes from the Latin noun “cessio”, which roughly means one who yields or surrenders. Cession seems to pride itself in approaching Christianity with an open mind about those thorny, divisive theological issues that tear many a church apart. Elder Frank Ritchie in a Wesleyanz article termed this the “radical middle”, being neither conservative nor liberal. If it weren’t for the affiliation with the Wesleyan Methodist Church, one could imagine cession joining the “conversation” of emergent churches (of which I have mixed feelings about). But I’m happy that cession’s not emergent enough that they start�questioning the core truths like Jesus being God, salvation being a global necessity and so on.

Visitor treatment: We had the pleasure of chatting with two churchgoers Katie and Sarah (she sang in the worship team earlier) after the service, who shared that they’ve just started a new service at 10.30am. As I mentioned earlier, the pastor was astute enough to stay clear of any overt jump-and-join approaches, and I picked out a genuine servant heart feel from the congregation present (from the media team to the caffeine technicians).

Other faculties: For those who love free food, cession worshippers make great sacrifices in contributing each week to a cession “chow”, basically a shared meal that begins at 5.00pm before the service proper. Unfortunately this review couldn’t extend into the food options afforded and so on, but it’s a unique and encouraging outreach that works pretty well for the church’s community size. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to dig deeper into the rest of the current teaching series or attend one of their regular Plugging-In sessions for those interested in finding out more.

Ultimately, there is a catch-22 in trying to reach out to the transient, postmodern generation that easily slides in and out of church like its a commodity, or a social event and not something as significant as the Bride of Jesus Christ. On the one hand, cession is a tight group of creative, forward-thinking Christians specialising in presenting a relevant gospel to the young in the area (young people reach young people the best). On the other hand, it doesn’t seem “mainstream” enough to appeal to mums and dads and extended families (no SuperGold card holders at this church, guaranteed), and there’s a danger of only being relevant as long as you’re young, and as Suzanne Paul can testify, people age. To stand the test of time eventually cession may need to assess whether they’ll continue to reach out to lost younguns or whether they’ll need to mature into an across-the-spectrum faith community (perhaps when the leadership team hits their 50s or something!).

Conclusion: A young, thinking person’s counterculture church which gets it right in balancing both being relevant and being true.

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(Disclosures: none at the time of visit, though 1 pastoral teamer is now fb friends.)
Next week: International Baptist Church.

(This review may not be representative of all of the church’s ministries, or their overall teaching. Opinions expressed in this review are that of the author, and may not wholly reflect all aspects of the church or its national body: nevertheless, comments have been humbly made in both truth and love as much as possible. Please contact the church for more detailed enquiries about their services.)

Director: Joe Wright. Producer: Tim Bevan. With James McAvoy, Saoirse Ronan, Ailidh Mackay, Keira Knightley.

Based on a 2001 novel by Ian McEwen, Atonement is very much a film about the power of the written word, allied with the impact of some beautifully presented cinematography.

Set in London in 1935, aspiring 13-year old writer Briony Tallis, through a series of misleading events, makes a decision that separates her sister Cecilia from her lover, named Robbie. The film then transitions into a moving war drama a la Saving Private Ryan, as the story follows Robbie’s conscription into the army. Retreating to the beaches in France and awaiting evacuation, we see some tough and realistic scenes of British soldiers involved in the famous Dunkirk evacuation. Cecilia and Briony end up working as hospital nurses for different reasons: Briony in particular seeks atonement for her childhood mistake that ultimately resulted in tragedy.

The most fascinating part of this movie would have been the wittiness of the film – the opening half-hour is a collection of mis-interpretations, half-truths and a near-sitcom like narrative (albeit set in pre-war England). The acting is impeccable, and Briony especially shines so much that one can almost see her fanciful imagination running riot in the story. The various changes of tone from whodunnit to war drama to psychological thriller seem intriguing, but the pay-off is that much sweeter once you realise their purpose.

The cinematography is masterfully crafted – one scene in particular sweeping across the war-torn beach in France tied around Robbie’s search for water, and showed various aspects of living conditions before the evacuation all in one take. This was shot beautifully and was my favourite scene. Another creative plot line showed Briony playing the fiction game in going along with a wounded Frenchman’s dying testimony – subtle plot details emerge and you realise his banter about having met her in France stems from a brain injury, and their conversation is (once again) a work of fiction.

The question the film poses tests the very nature of fiction – what is its purpose? Can a writer, in his or her mind, really change the past?

Anyways. Very clever, A.

(Photo: Thomas Scheuzger and Kelly Schaub)

It was a night of back-to-back-to-back works at New Zealand’s foremost biennial violin virtuoso round-up, fast becoming the most prestigious international violin competition in Australasia. MHIVC 2007′s final round featured 3 finalists who all chose Brahm’s Violin Concerto in D Major, giving the audience a rare opportunity to compare apples with apples in a professional virtuoso competition.

The big apple of the evening was undoubtedly Bulgarian Bella Hristova, whose fierce and also primitive-like sound in the first movement was matched only by her immense dexterity and musical presence that nearly defied acoustic logic. Perhaps it was her 1655 Amati once owned by the famous violinist Louis Krashner, or her playful yet determined cadenza different from her fellow finalists – but Hristova’s style was summed up effectively by the way she ruthlessly yanked at offending strands of loose bow-hair following the first A Section.

It pays to note that the final round featuring Christan Knapp conducting the APO, comprised only a segment of the entire judging process that spanned a week in Queenstown previously. Nevertheless, Berliner Stefan Hempel faced the unenviable task of performing first, his allegro non troppo assured but decidedly ordinary. Both his and Hristova’s adagios failed to rise to any great level of expressiveness, yet one could argue that Brahms would have preferred neither chose to make it a window-sill serenade. The folk-like third movement was riddled with very uncertain runs by Hempel. In contrast, the more fierce and in-touch with her Eastern European stylistics Hristova was, the more it made Hempel sound bland.

Any exciting competition needs a good dark horse, and Singapore-born Yuuki Wong made sure of that: his intense expressiveness convinced everyone in the Town Hall that he was playing from the heart and made for a very deserved 2nd placing (though the APO’s 3rd run-through of Brahms harmonies sounded just that: a run-through).

Ferocity was not Wong’s strategy – that was Hristova’s tactic, yet one almost wished that he chose the Sibelius or Shostakovich No1 instead to showcase his passionate lyricism (rather than the heavy romantic nature of Brahms).  An embarrassingly sharp note in the 2nd movement gave a comic demonstration of Kuleshov’s effect (his constantly fixed expression instantly changed its meaning from “I’m being lyrical” to “I made a mistake”), yet one felt that Wong gave the most depth and warmth to the normally flaccid adagio.  His allegro giocoso simmered with good intentions, but it wasn’t raw and ethnographic enough to appease the judging panel of nine.

In any case, Hristova’s grand prize of $40000, a Naxos recording and a winner’s tour means that there’s more to come from this rising star next year.

- W Chong

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