Category: Reviews, News and Commentary

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Vengerov & Sibelius

Auckland Philharmonia

Auckland Town Hall

August 24

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

After a rapturous ovation given to the Russian violinist Maxim Vengerov for his playing of the Sibelius Violin Concerto he thanked the audience and New Zealand for its “wonderful, mysterious weather”.

That description of “wonderful and mysterious” could have equally been applied to his stunning performance of the violin concerto with its mixture of dark energy, sublime beauty and  ever-changing dynamic forces.

From the outset of the first movement as his melancholic violin  rose about the whispering strings the audience was in his thrall and with his increasingly feversish playing he dominated the orchestra. His was a spectacular example of a violinist fully understanding the music and he was able to convey the emotions and yearnings imbedded in the piece.

Often Vengerov seemed to be taking his cue from the orchestra while at other times he seemed to be playing independently, rising above the orchestra, and then he would allow its forces to overwhelm him, his body and violin buffeted by the orchestra.

He played with an intensity and anguish in response  to the tormenting sounds of the orchestra which was conveyed by his rapid playing and his skilful techniques such as  vigorously  playing two strings at once.

At the close of the first movement, he distanced himself frpm the orchestra as though  playing in a reverie before  bursting out with a frenzied, dance-like sequence.

The tension and angst of the first movement was followed by a  transcendental  slow movement filled with an electrifying urgency. He delivered a sinuous sound, with rapid bowing  which slowly unfolded into a romantic sequence. Here the orchestra seemed to taunt him with dramatic waves of sound before violinist and orchestra  shared some exquisitely intertwined music.

In the third movement Vengerov’s frenetic playing rose above the tempestuous sounds of the orchestra and timpani and there was a fascinating interplay between violinist and orchestra where he produced thrilling high notes as they joined in the fast-paced race to the finish.

Much of the concerto sees the violinist buffeted by the orchestra, the single musician resisting the domination of the surging power of the orchestra. This is a musical representation of the oppression felt by many Finns of the Russian occupiers, denying them a voice.

This struggle of the Finns against the Russian occupiers  featured in two of the other works on the programme – “En Saga” of 1892/1902) and Finlandia (1900). These two works book-ended the concert, both featuring   rousing and turbulent music, a covert protest against the Russian Empire.

 “En Saga” opened with shimmering strings suggesting water and scudding clouds along with the woodwinds suggesting forests while the  brushed cymbals  hinted as  a landscape in peril.

The work tells of the sounds and narrative of a Norse saga but also the saga of more recent times.

In order to avoid Russian censorship Finlandia was  performed under alternative names at such as “Happy Feelings” and “A Scandinavian Choral March”…

The work opened with the  menacing sounds of blaring horns  and growling timpani, followed by a  gentler sequence featuring strings and woodwinds which conjure up images of landscape, in a hymn to Finland’s history and myths.

The work also heralds the idea of a new Finland with  sprightly music full of  new colours and textures.  There was also a sense of despair or resignation conveyed by flute and woodwinds as well as a riotous Wagnerian assertion before closing off with a soulful clarinet – an image of the composer alone in the landscape.

The middle part of the work is  slow and uplifting strings, woodwinds, brass all playing together in a celebration of country and beauty with some  obsessive playing.

The composers  interest in capturing his own and his country’s feelings in these works show how an idea can inspire a composer and how a musical idea can inspire a nation.

The concert also featured the composers Symphony No 6 which was composed in 1923 after Finland gained its independence for the first time in over 500 years. The work does not have the same angst as many of the  composer’s previous works. There is a more cheerful and celebratory tone with some beautifully sustained  music full of life and pleasure although there were also underlying darker element.

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki

Women: Flight of Time

Curated by Julia Waite

And

Women: Flight of Time

Published by Auckland Art Gallery

Edited by Julia Waite

RRP $65.00

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Women: Flight of Time is a new exhibition at the Auckland Art Gallery which highlights the place of women artists in shaping the development of modern art in New Zealand.

Spanning the period from 1920 to 1970, the exhibition features more than 80 paintings, prints, sculptures and textiles from public and private collections showing major works alongside works which have not previously been exhibited, revealing connections between artists and exploring themes and ideas which show the depth of women’s artistic achievements.

Auckland Art Gallery Director Kirsten Lacy says, “The Gallery is committed to ensuring that women artists take their due place in the history of modern art and that the contexts in which they produced are made visible. The women celebrated in Modern Women: Flight of Time are pioneering artists who boldly seized control of their own representation, leaving an indelible mark on New Zealand.”

Included in the exhibition are major work such as Rita Angus’ “Portrait of Betty Curnow” (1942), Frances Hodgkins’  “Self Portrait: Still Life: (1936) and Lois White’s “War Makers of 1937.

There are also artists whose careers have only recently been given more attention such as Colin McCahon’s wife Anne Hamblett and Pauline Yearbury, the first Māori woman to  graduate from Elam in 1946.

The exhibition has been an opportunity for the gallery to include  international female artists held in New Zealand collections. So, there are works such as “The Marriage at Cana” by the English neo-romantic artist Winifred Knights and works by  the  Russian modernist, Natalia Goncharova and British sculptor Barbara Hepworth.

Exhibited with the major works of Frances Hodgkins’   there are also some of her exceptional textile designs from the 1920’s. There are several other textile works in the show including the large curtails made for the Auckland Art Gallery in 1958  by Ilse von Randow who had previously woven work in collaborated with Colin McCahon.

Within the exhibition there is a mini exhibition of work by June Black featuring paintings, sculptures and graphic work . She was an early feminist who exhibited nationally and internationally in the 1950s and 1960s  Her figurative work reflect her  interest in existentialism, surrealism and the theatre of the absurd.

There are some treasures to be found in the show notably  a few small works by Flora Scales who has often been mentioned as the artist who provided Toss Woollaston with the impetus to pursue new ideas.

These small works spanning the1930’s through to the 1970’s are works painted in France, the UK and New Zealand. Her “Port of Mousehole at Sunset” is an extraordinary work part post-impressionist work and modern blurred imagery.

The range of work includes an exclusive collaboration with Karen Walker, introducing a collection of three silk scarves featuring artworks from the Gallery’s collection: Adele Younghusband’s Rehearsal (1938), Eileen Mayo’s Turkish Bath (circa 1930) and Teuana Tibbo’s Vase of Flowers (circa 1965).

The artists featured in this exhibition are: Eileen Agar, Rita Angus, Mina Arndt, Tanya Ashken, June Black, Jenny Campbell, Alison Duff, Elizabeth Ellis, Jacqueline Fahey, Ivy Fife, Natalia Goncharova, Anne Hamblett, Rhona Haszard, Barbara Hepworth, Avis Higgs, Frances Hodgkins, Julia Holderness (Florence Weir), Laura Knight, Winifred Knights, Mere Harrison Lodge, Doris Lusk, Molly Macalister, Ngaio Marsh, Kāterina Mataira, Eileen Mayo, Juliet Peter, Margot Philips, Ilse von Randow, Anne Estelle Rice, Kittie Roberts, Flora Scales, Maud Sherwood, May Smith, Olivia Spencer Bower, Helen Stewart, Teuane Tibbo, A Lois White, Pauline Yearbury, Adele Younghusband, and Beth Zanders.

Women: Flight of Time

Published by Auckland Art Gallery

Edited by Julia Waite

RRP $65.00

The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated book, Modern Women: Flight of Time, which offers a deeper exploration of the featured artists and profiles additional artists.

The exhibition is divided into three thematic areas – Stage , Mask and Setting but this is not all the apparent when viewing the show. The book however makes these three areas much more obvious.

The works under Stage is of interiors, individual and objects within settings with artists such as Lois White, Eileen Mayo and Tanya Ashken. The Adele Younghusband works focus on both domestic and industrial  activities with her “Girl Ironing” as well as “Log Haulers”.

The works under the heading of Mask are mainly  of portraits with artists  Mina Arndt, Maud Sherwood and May Smith  The iconic “Portrait of Betty Curnow by Rita Angus is featured along with the “Double Portrait of Frances Hodgkins.

The paintings in “Settings”  are predominantly landscape and include work by  Rhona Haszard, Jaqueline Fahey and Ivy Fife. Here there are also the  sparse landscapes of Margot Phillips such as her “The Lighthouse”.

In her introduction Julia Waite provides perceptive insights into the ways the female artists worked within their various genres. She explores the various dimensions of these artists lives, their family and domestic connections, their development of skills through art school, teachers and other influences as well as their experiments and experiences both in New Zealand and abroad.,

The book also provides valuable information about the careers of these women artists as in the case of Katerina Mataira who was one of the few women who was part of Gordon Tovey’s innovative art programme in North land  which had also included artists such as Ralph Hotere. There are also essays on other lesser-known Māori artists such as Pauline Yearbury and Mere Harrison-Lodge.

With over 100 illustrations and fifty essays on women artists the books not only provides a history of development of the art by women  in the middle of the twentieth century but also an insight into the careers and dedication of these artists.

The essays also reveal the problems faced by many women artists whose careers were often interrupted or curtailed by political, social or domestic issues.

The lack of recognition led to many of these women not being included in exhibitions and publications and omitted from the canon of New Zealand art.

The book includes  writing from various experts including Jill Trevelyan, Sophie Matthiesson, Linda Tyler, Robyn Notman, Joanne Drayton, Kirsty Baker, Leonard Bell. Felicity Milburn, Megan Tamati-Quennell, Nathan Pōhio.

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Mozart: The Great

New Zealand Symphony Orchestra

Auckland Town Hall

August 16

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

The NZSO’s recent  “Mozart: The Great” concert makes one realize that all orchestra should be having at least one Mozart concert each year to emphasise the importance of the composers work within the classical music tradition.

His compositions have had a major impact on the evolution of classical music, providing a bridge between Baroque and Romanticism as well as more contemporary composers. They were notable for their structural balance, inventive melodies, rich harmonies and complex orchestration. Mozart’s mastery of orchestration.

The concert offered two Mozart works – Piano Concerto No 21 and his Symphony No 40 conducted by the visiting German conductor Andre de Ridder.

Mozart’s works are filled with drama, humour and emotion and de Ridder ensured that these qualities were expressed through his conducting  where  his gestures displayed a physical response to the music,

He made one aware of  Mozart’s evolving contrasts and changing dynamics with a precise attention to detail. He also drew attention to Mozart’s innovative ways of using instruments and the inventive ways in which he made transitions between themes and instrumentation.

De Ridder seemed intent on using the orchestra to create a luxurious world full of narrative, landscape and structure. He achieved this with his elaborate gestures, seemingly moulding the music’s dynamic conversations in the robust drama of the third movement  and in the frenetic final movement.

He also drew attention to the music in having long, contemplative breaks between the movements as though stressing both independence of each movement as well as their connections.

The Piano Concerto was played by the Australian pianist Andre Lam who gave a sophisticated reading of the work, playing with a stylish elegance and at times appeared to be captivated by the sounds she was producing,

After the initial sprightly opening  and a series of  trembling notes her playing evolved into more detached and considered sequence. This was followed by some exquisitely beautiful passages which also revealed some darker elements. At the close of the first movement Lam performed a dramatic cadenza with an almost meditative approach before leading the orchestra to a brilliant finale.

With the second movement made  famous by the   Elvira Madigan movie she expressed the romantic nature of the piece playing with  a sinuous line as though floating above the orchestra with de Ridder ensuring the orchestra never overwhelmed the pianist’s delicate touch.

In the  third movement she displayed a brilliance and bravado as she and the orchestra competed and complemented each other in passages which were almost Beethovian. In the finale of the last movement, studiously bent over the keys she gave a rigorous performance full of drama  and wit.

The first work on the programme was Gyorgy Ligeti’s “Concerto Romanesc” written in 1951 but initially banned by the soviet authorities because of its dissonant folk sounds.

Influenced by the music of Bela Bartok and with traces of Aaron Copland the work opened with cello and woodwind providing a sense of romanticism and open spaces  .

The second movement with its folk-dance melodies morphed into more abstract bursts of sounds with hints of exotic music among the surging sounds and dramatic percussion.

De Ridder firmly controlled the various instruments and their unfamiliar sounds which ranged from the violinists playing on the bridge to Eastern  sounds  and  a gunshot.

The work highlighted the place of Romanian music at the cultural crossroads between Eastern and Western music as well as the place of folk music within that tradition.

Forthcoming NZSO concerts in Auckland

La Mer  

Nielsen Tchaikovsky, Sibelius and Debussy

Auckland Town Hall, August 29

Jupiter

Copland, Cresswell and Mozart

Auckland Town Hall,  September 21

To subscribe or follow New Zealand Arts Review site – www.nzartsreview.org.

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Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Scenes from the Climate Era

By David Finnigan

Presented by Auckland Theatre Company and Silo Theatre

Rangatira. Q Theatre

Until August 24

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

When we first enter Silo Theatre we are  handed a little manilla envelope. There is a seed in it. Under our seats we find another little manilla envelope with a seed in it. Of course, this is a seed to plant tomorrow in our gardens to grow a plant which will help combat climate change.

But no. We are told this is not a seed but a lentil. Of course, everyone knows that lentils play a  vital role in sustainable agriculture. Adding lentils to crop rotations not only helps in providing more of this important crop, it also  improves soil health, reduces greenhouse gas emissions and stores more carbon in the soil than most other plants.

But no. We are told this is part of our becoming agents provocateurs. After the show we are to go out into the city looking for gas-guzzling SUV’s. We are to remove the cap of the tire valve, insert the lentil and put the cap back on. In less than an hour the tire will have deflated. For extra measure we can also key the side panels of the vehicle. Done frequently this activity will result in a drop in SUV ownership, another battle won in the Climate Change Wars.

But that’s about it for radical action in David Finnigan’s “Scenes from the Climate Era”. What follows are several dozen short scenes which explain, examine and dissect  various aspects of the Climate Crisis – the political, scientific, social and personal aspects which the world is facing and will continue to face over the next decades.

Finnigan’s play which seems at times to be more lecture or a call to arms not only expounds on the various aspects of the Climate Condition but also reveals the emotional and philosophical responses which make the issues so important and relevant.

The climate crisis has been central to Finnigan’s work with his 2014 play “Kill Climate Deniers” looking at political inaction, Then there was “Your Safe Til 2024”, a work that tried to temper climate despair with hope and his comedy “44 Sex Acts in One Week”, a comic response to the relentless push to towards climate disaster.

Among the various scenes presented in “Scenes from the Climate Era” was a quick history of the COP summits, dealing with the end of species, the issues of climate anxiety, how climate issues should be presented by the media and  how to tell when the Climate Era is over.

The final scene of the play, set some time in the future imagines a coastal inundation  somewhere in New Zealand and a heat inundation in an Australian city both of which were presented as apocalyptic climactic moments and a time of popular uprising.

One issue which was briefly touched on was the decision to have children but this passed without really addressing the issue of population control – the great elephant in the room of Climate Future.

It’s a powerful work which is relevant for our times, making one realise that governments and their agencies are failing us and we could be losing more of our natural habitat as well as our urban living spaces and possibly the planet.

The five actors who take on  multiple roles brought a relentless energy to the work, some more so than others.

Arlo Green gave some standout performances particularly as the over enthusiastic conference leader and his Glaswegian accent was perfect.

Amanda Tito gave sophisticated performances  especially as a slinky cat while Sean Dioneda Rivera excelled as a nearly extinct frog and Nī Dekkers-Reihana was effective as a some-time narrator and linkage person.

Dawn Cheong as a would-be TV presenter  gave a great display of disbelief and anger in responding to suggestions of media compliance.

Director  Jason Te Kare ensured a seamless transition between scenes and the subtle  lighting (Jane Hakaraia) and effective soundscape (Leon Radojkovic) contributed to the overall drama of the play.

Unfortunately, it seems they weren’t all that interested in depleting the number of SUV on the road bas they asked for the little manilla  envelopes and the lentils back at the end of the performance.

To subscribe or follow New Zealand Arts Review site – www.nzartsreview.org.

The “Follow button” at the bottom right will appear and clicking on that button  will allow you to follow that blog and all future posts will arrive on your email.

Or go to https://nzartsreview.org/blog/, Scroll down and click “Subscribe”