APO’s Romantic Journeys

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Auckland Philharmonia

Romantic Journeys

Auckland Town Hall

November 21

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

The opening and closing works on the APO’s Romantic Journeys programme featured travelogues from Tchaikovsky and Schumann. Tchaikovsky Capriccio Italien is a record of one of his  trips to Italy whileSchumann’s Symphony No.3 ‘Rhenish’ was written in response to a journey along the Rhine and a visit to Cologne.

Tchaikovsky travelled many times to Italy, partly to escape the Russian winter and it was on one of these trips that he was inspired to compose his Capriccio Italien partly inspired by Carnivale, of which he wrote – “seeing the public raging on the Corso, you are convinced that no matter how strangely the joy of the local crowd manifests itself, it is nevertheless sincere and unconstrained,”

A  blaze of horns opens the work,like a curtain being lifted to reveal a colourful panorama of landscape, cities and spectacle. There are some slow and precise passages before we hear traces of folk music which introduce a sense of Italian life with lively  and charming dance melodies and bugle calls.

This was followed by a fast-paced tarantella-like sequence with the lively strings and woodwinds allowing the composer to capture the ebullient moods of the people as they danced through Carnivale  from dawn to dusk.

Throughout the work with its changing, colours and tempos there is a sense of the composer delighting in parading these sounds which would be new to a Northern European  audience

Schumann’s Symphony No 3 (Rhenish) is a portrait of the Rhine but it can be seen as part of the nationalist ethos which had been developing since the end of the Napoleonic  Wars and was particularly strong in the Rhineland.

From the opening fanfare, there is a sense of celebration of the land, the buildings and the people. The Rhine is central to this depiction and the music paints a picture of the flowing river indicated by the sinuous sounds and overlapping melodies of the orchestra.

The work is like a musical diary depicting the changing landscape as the composer passes through towns and villages capturing his changing impressions.

The voluptuous second movement also has landscape images – clouds, fields and activity, all highlighted with bursts of dramatic brass while the third continues with descriptive passages which are increasingly jaunty.

The fourth movement is  full of majestic sounds and is a description of the composers visit to Cologne Cathedral, the largest in Germany. The building was still in its unfinished state, surrounded by scaffolding, the two massive spires yet to be installed. It would still have provided an impressive scene and the music conveys that sense of size and grandeur, with traces of liturgical and choral music. The full range of the brass instruments provided  the orchestral texture and the movement climaxed in a massive, repeated fanfare for brass and winds.

With the finale, the vibrancy of the first movement was revisited emphasising the rhythms, giving the music a headlong movement that drove the Symphony to its thrilling, conclusion.

Between the two descriptive works the orchestra played Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme with German / Canadian cellist Johannes Moser who replaced Edgar Moreau.

Moser glided  effortlessly through the work revelling in the interplay with the orchestra in a tantalising display which emphasised aspects of the sophisticated composition. He made use of the various solo sections  to show an understanding of the work as well  displaying his extraordinary technical skills.

He was able to combine, as did Tchaikovsky, an understanding of the romanticism of the Rococo theme as well as debt to Mozart which gives the work its spectacle in the way that cello and orchestra intertwine. The theme was dissected and re-formed in different guises with Moser seemingly finding new opportunities in the melodies as well as exploring its tones, and textures.