26 Oct 2020

Settling The Score 2020: The Top 100

From Settling the Score, 7:00 pm on 26 October 2020

New Zealand's most popular piece of classical music this year is Gallipoli to the Somme by New Zealand composer Anthony Ritchie.

This is the first time a New Zealand composition has won Settling The Score.

The piece traces the experiences of WWI soldier Alexander Aitken, from the Otago Battalion in New Zealand, his arrival in Gallipoli, his experience of Christmas 1915, his preparation for battle at the Somme, the loss of his comrades, and encounters with the German army. The sound of his solo violin, which he took with him through the war, also pervades the piece. The composition was commissioned by the Dunedin Symphony Orchestra.

People who voted for Anthony Ritchie's oratorio said:

"Gallipoli to the Somme was the most moving piece of music I have ever sung. I was even more overcome when I visited [the] Gallipoli [exhibition] at Te Papa and discovered the words of the last piece were written on the wall as you left the exhibit. I cried, and cried and cried as I left that day."

"I have been to 4 performances of this work, two in NZ and two in UK. Each has brought the both the choir and audience to tears."

"This music is incredible - so moving and evocative of this time. I have sung this twice in Dunedin with the City Choir Dunedin and the DSO. This piece is a highlight of my 40 plus years of singing and deserves to be heard many many times world wide."

Here are the Top 100 works as voted for by New Zealander's in Settling The Score 2020

(Click on the title for more information and/or to listen)

1. RITCHIE, ANTHONY: From Gallipoli to the Somme (NZ) 

2. VAUGHAN WILLIAMS: The Lark Ascending 

3. BEETHOVEN: Piano Concerto No 5 in Eb Op 73, Emperor

4. ELGAR: Enigma Variations (including Nimrod & Lux Aeterna) 

5. K JENKINS: The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace (Including the Benedictus) 

6. BRUCH: Violin Concerto No 1 in G minor Op 26 

7. PART: Spiegel im Spiegel

8. STRAUSS, RICHARD: Four Last Songs

9. BEETHOVEN: Symphony No 9 in D minor Op 125, Chora (Ode to Joy) 

10. MOZART: Clarinet Concerto in A K622

11. ELGAR: Cello Concerto in E minor Op 85

12. RACHMANINOV: Piano Concerto No 2 in C minor Op 18

13. DVORAK: Symphony No 9 in E minor, From the New World (including Largo, 'Goin' Home') 

14. SAINT-SAENS: Symphony No 3 in C minor Op 78, Organ

15. BACH: Cello Suite (s)

16. FAURE: Requiem Op 48

17. ALLEGRI: Miserere mei, Deus 

18. BEETHOVEN: Symphony No 6 in F Op 68, Pastoral

19. HANDEL: Messiah (including the Hallelujah Chorus and many, many more) 

20. HOLST: The Planets Suite (including Jupiter, Mars, Venus, etc...) 

21. BEETHOVEN: Symphony No 7 in A Op 92

22. VAUGHAN WILLIAMS: Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis

23. BEETHOVEN: Violin Concerto in D Op 61

24. RODRIGO: Concierto de Aranjuez

25. PACHELBEL: Canon in D

26. SIBELIUS: Finlandia

27. CHOPIN: Nocturne (s)

28. GERSHWIN: Rhapsody in Blue

29. BACH: Mass in B minor 

30. VIVALDI: Four Seasons

31. ALBINONI: Adagio in G minor 

32. GORECKI: Symphony No 3, Symphony of Sorrowful Songs 

33. BACH: St Matthew Passion

34. RIMSKY-KORSAKOV: Scheherazade

35. GRIEG: Peer Gynt (including Morning Mood and Hall of the Mountain King) 

36. BEETHOVEN: Symphony No 5 in C minor Op 67

37. BACH: Goldberg Variations BWV988

38. LILBURN: Aotearoa Overture (NZ) 

39. BORODIN: In the Steppes of Central Asia 

40. BARBER: Adagio for Strings (and choral version, Agnus Dei)

41. ARTLEY, CHRIS: O Magnum Mysterium (NZ) 

42. BEETHOVEN: Piano Sonata No 14 in C# minor, Moonlight

43. DVORAK: Song to the moon, from Rusalka

44. GRIEG: Piano Concerto in A minor Op 16

45. SCHUBERT: String Quintet in C D956

46. RAVEL: Boléro 

47. SATIE: Gymnopédies 

48. MAXWELL DAVIES: Farewell to Stromness 

49. JENNINGS: Bat/The Leading Violinist (NZ) 

50. FARR: From the Depths Sound the Great Sea Gongs (NZ) 

51. BACH: Concerto in D minor for two violins BWV1043

52. MOZART: Requiem in D minor K626 (including the Lacrimosa and Dies Irae) 

53. BIZET: Au fond du temple saint, from The Pearl Fishers

54. BACH: Jesu, joy of man's desiring, from Cantata No 147, Herz und Mund 

55. SIBELIUS: Karelia suite (including Alla Marcia) 

56. DVORAK: Cello Concerto in B minor Op 104

57. MUSSORGSKY: Pictures at an Exhibition (including The Great Gates of Kiev) 

58. MORRICONE: Gabriel's Oboe, from The Mission 

59. BACH: Brandenburg Concerto No 3

60. MOZART: Piano Concerto No 21 in C K467

61. FAURE: Cantique de Jean Racine

62. SMETANA: Vltava, from Má Vlast (The Moldau) 

63. BEETHOVEN: Symphony No 3 in Eb Op 55, Eroica  

64. TCHAIKOVSKY: The Nutcracker 

65. JENNINGS: Magnificat (NZ) 

66. BEETHOVEN: Triple Concerto in C Op 56

67. MENDELSSOHN: Hebrides Overture - Fingal's Cave 

68. BACH: Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565 

69. MOZART: Ave verum corpus K618 

70. SCHUBERT: Piano Quintet in A D667, Trout

71. SIBELIUS: Violin Concerto in D minor Op 47

72. BRUCH: Scottish Fantasy Op 46 

73. DEBUSSY: Clair de lune, from Suite bergamasque 

74. BACH: Air on a G String 

75. TCHAIKOVSKY: Symphony No 6 in B minor Op 74, Pathétique

76. BRUCH: Kol Nidrei 

77. CHOPIN: Piano Concerto No 1 in E minor Op 11 

78. SAINT-SAENS: Danse macabre

79. MENDELSSOHN: Violin Concerto in E minor Op 64

80. TALLIS: Spem in alium

81. LILBURN: Four Canzonas (NZ) 

82. SCHUBERT: Notturno in Eb D897 

83. TCHAIKOVSKY: 1812 Overture 

84. SIBELIUS: Symphony No 2 in D Op 43

85. VERDI: Requiem 

86. STRAVINSKY: The Rite of Spring

87. FARQUHAR: Ring Round the Moon (NZ) 

88. SCHUBERT: Symphony No 9 in C D944, Great

89. RACHMANINOV: Piano Concerto No 3 in D minor Op 30

90. FAURE: Pavane 

91. BRAHMS: Violin concerto in D Op 77 

92. KHACHATURIAN: Spartacus, Suite (including the adagio) 

93. DELIBES: Flower Duet, from Lakmé 

94. PURCELL: Dido's Lament from Dido & Aeneas 

95. MOZART: Clarinet Quintet in A K581 

96. HANDEL: Eternal Source of Light Divine 

97. PART, ARVO: Fratres 

98. MAHLER: Symphony No 2 in C minor, Resurrection

99. VERDI: Va pensiero, from Nabucco 

100. COPLAND: Fanfare for the Common Man