Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples
Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra
Fairytale Romance
ICBC Great Classics
Auckland Town Hall
November 5
Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples
The three works on the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra’s “Fairytale Romance” programme were examples of different styles of composition, from the carefully constructed. Mozart through the fanciful music of Mendelssohn to the expressive Brahms Serenade No1
Mozart’s Symphony No. 25 is one of the composer’s quintessential works written by the 17 year old composer with its first movement used to great effect in the Milos Forman’s film Amadeus.
The work is full of energy and inventiveness and there is a chiaroscuro of sound throughout, contrasts between light and dark which conductor Giordano Bellincampi exploited to the full. These contrasts also make one aware of the complex architecture which Mozart builds, structures which are then provided with rich embellishments.
Mendelssohn was also 17 when he composed the incidental music to A Midsummers Night’s Dream , inspired by the Shakespeare play. In it he manages to completely capture the magic and frivolity of the ethereal world Shakespeare created. The piece seems to be the ideal music to be used for the Midsummers Night’s Dream ballet originally devised by George Balanchine.
The orchestra depicted the fairies flitting through the woods, the heavy rhythms of the Mechanicals and the braying of Bottom along with the delicate themes portraying the lovers.
The Brahms Serenade No 1 also creates images but for this work Bellincampi was no longer waving a fairy wand, using the orchestra to create a fantasy world. His baton became a brush using Brahms’ music to paint emotional moods and expressive landscapes rooted in the everyday. The contracts in the music were those of the landscape – scudding clouds, changing light and colours
The lovely, descriptive music was accompanied by Bellincampi’s graceful conducting and his dance-like movements on the podium
Future APO Concerts
Poetry and Passion
November 12
Leonie Holmes, For just a little moment…(world premiere)
Schumann, Piano Concerto
Tchaikovsky, Symphony No.4
NZ-based German pianist Michael Endres joins the APO playing Schumann’s Piano Concerto replacing Ingrid Fliter.
New Zealand Arts Review 