Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples
Become Ocean & Beethoven 5
New Zealand Symphony Orchestra
Auckland Town Hall
August 4 & 6
Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples
Last week saw the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra presenting a three-day mini music festival with compositions spanning three centuries from Beethoven’s Symphony No 5 through to John Luther Adams “Become Ocean” which won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2014.
The three concerts were all conducted by German Andre de Ridder, a champion of contemporary music.
The first work in the “Become Ocean” concert was Toru Takemitsu’s “Rain Tree” which takes its title from a passage in the novel “Atama no ii Ame no Ki” (The Ingenious Rain Tree) by Kenzaburo Oe: “It has been named the ‘rain tree’ for its abundant foliage continues to let fall rain drops collected from last night’s shower until well after the following midday. Its hundreds of thousands of tiny leaves – finger-like – store up moisture” The tree then continues to have droplets of water rain down.
The extraordinary percussion piece featured three performers playing various percussion instruments – bells, marimba, xylophone, and vibraphone. The performers were positioned high on the Town Hall stage with a row of seven instruments and each of the players were spot lit in the otherwise darkened hall, the oscillation of the lights between the players providing a visual enhancement to the music,
The various instruments represent the sounds and ambience of water and falling raindrops. At times this was the soft delicate sounds of light rain and at other times the greater intensity of sounds conveyed the noise of heavy rainfall.
The ringing, tinkling, jingling of the instruments created a subtly changing soundscape but the music also conjured up images of water falling on hard ground, on water, on colourful flowers and silently into foliage. At times there was a sense that we and the performers were under water, bathed in the soft blue light which shrouded the performers and the long lingering chimes gave a sense of depth. space and time.
The work was constantly evolving with repetition, changes in tone and volume, the sounds pulsing through the Town Hall, affecting both performers and audience.
The major work on the programme was John Luther Adams’s “Become Ocean”. The work played in a single movement, was inspired by the oceans of Alaska and the Pacific Northwest. The composer took his title from a phrase of John Cage in honour of Lou Harrison, and further explained his title.
“Life on this earth first emerged from the sea. As the polar ice melts and sea level rises, we humans find ourselves facing the prospect that once again we may quite literally become ocean.”
It was essentially a minimalist work in much the same mode as his fellow composer John Adams.
The orchestra under German conductor de Ridder was divided in to three groups with a centrally placed piano which maintained a constant murmuring presence. The way the groups competed and integrated with each other made the work more like a sound installation engineered by de Ridder.
Each of the sections had their own minamiilst sequence of musical phrases which in turn overlapped, contrasted or intertwined with each other. At times their playing was not much more than quiet breathing while at other times they surged with a monstrous roar
De Ridder was meticulous as he co-ordinated the various groups with feather-like arm gestures and crisp pointing to soloists and individual groups.
The orchestral instruments were largely used for their percussive qualities notably the timpani brass and woodwinds but even the violins were used at times, merely to quiver.
There were times when the orchestra seemed like a giant sea creature being brought to life with the roaring of the brass. At other times the discrete sounds made one aware of the “Butterfly Effect” where a single flap of the wing can have implications for changing weather and life cycles.
The conductor (and composer) seemed to continually discover new ways to create instrumental sounds – breathing, growling and shimmering which were aural metaphors for the land, sky and sea which created a grandeur of scale and space.
The Beethoven 5 concert opened with a performance of Beethoven’s “Coriolan Overture” in which the composer sought to convey the dramatic tale of the Roman general who planned a revenge on Rome until his mother entreats him to stop and he chooses to commit suicide.
This is a work of huge dramatic moments conveying both Coriolan’s heroic qualities as well as his compassionate side and De Ridder made this emotional conflict clear from the opening dramatic chords through to the deathly whispering conclusion.
the Korean composer Unsuk Chin’s “subito con forza” which was commissioned to commemorate Beethoven’s 250th anniversary takes its inspiration for the Beethoven overture, the title referring to the notion of a sudden shift from one musical texture to another, a method Beethoven’s often used in his work and obvious in the “Coriolan Overture.
De Ridder said of the work, “the point is not to mash-up styles and ensembles, but to contrast and complement, to create a bigger picture.” By doing this, de Ridder hopes to “find new audiences for [traditional] repertoire and putting it in new contexts”.
The work began with the opening chords of the Coriolan which the composer then explodes with furious sounds. The traces of the theme were rigorously developed with abrupt changes with competing piano, woodwinds and xylophone along with a crescendo of bells and cymbals.
The main work on the programmes was Beethoven Symphony No 5 and like his other works such as the Symphony No 3 reflected the period – revolutionary, transformative and dramatic. These works expanded the whole idea of the symphony giving them an epic scope and emotional impact.
Rather than being music with great melodies full of poise and balance this was music which attempted to advance new ideas and placed the composer at the forefront of the Romantic revolution where narrative, originality and emotion were all-important.
The Fifth is a work which can be heard countless times without becoming totally familiar but with de Ridder at the helm this was a magnificent performance which was both familiar and new. The opening of the drumbeats was familiar but the conductor’s exploration of the work seemed to give it an edgy drama with each section of the work given an ideal workout with displays of intense energy and refined restraint.
De Rider conducted with a supreme elegance throughout the performance taking the orchestra through to the glorious finale.
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