Category: Reviews, News and Commentary

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Chisato Minamimura

Auckland Arts Festival

Scored in Silence

Chisato Minamimura

Magic Mirrors Spiegeltent, Aotea Square
March 11,

Then Streaming on Vidzing
March 12 – 26

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

“Scored in Silence” is a solo documentary / theatre / film performance by Chisato Minamimura which tells the story of the deaf survivors of Hiroshima.

It provides a brief history of the events leading up to Japan’s involvement in World War II and the various steps taken by the American government before the dropping of the A-Bomb including the decision not to inform the Japanese of the attack and the opposition of many American scientists to the decision.

Chisato Minamimura address the audience using sign language as well as providing English language captions on the screen which also displays diagrams and images related to the event.

Additionally, even though this is a “deaf production” there is a low level soundscape which heightens the experience of the show.

While Minamimura uses sign language her hand movements and facial expressions carry an emotional dimension.

The description of the flight of the plane carrying the bomb is brilliantly conveyed with diagrammatic maps as well as graphic rendering of the plane. Minamimura acts as the  pilot, moving and  jiggling with the vibrations of the plane and these scenes are intercut with images of her as a worker in the field looking up at the plane and as individual running and working, soldiers saluting.

When the bomb drops the sound accompaniment abruptly stops and there is total silence and we are put in the place of the deaf who never heard the noise of the explosion.

Then there are images of black rain and we are bombarded with a welter of diagrammatic images of arms, legs  and hands to signify the effects of the blast.

The interviews with survivors tells of the personal and social consequences of the  aftermath, including forced sterilisation and the ongoing discrimination experienced by these isolated members of Japanese society including the story about a deaf barber who wanted to expand his business but was continually rejected for a bank loan. 

Apart from one image of the destroyed city Minamimura has not included images of the effects of the bomb or the dead, although  statements by the deaf survivors speak of seeing the dead.  

The work is a slightly surreal mixture of  theatre, dance and mime which is relentlessly engaging in its innovative and almost detached form of story-telling.

Streaming on Vidzing
Online 12 – 26 March

https://www.vidzing.tv/te-ahurei-toi-o-tamaki-or-auckland-arts-festival/e9c50adb-40a3-4028-9972-e32dbb60cf9f

If you want to subscribe or follow New Zealand Arts Review site – www.nzartsreview.org.

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

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Chisato Minamimura

Auckland Arts Festival

Scored in Silence

Chisato Minamimura

Magic Mirrors Spiegeltent, Aotea Square
March 11,

Then Streaming on Vidzing
March 12 – 26

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

“Scored in Silence” is a solo documentary / theatre / film performance by Chisato Minamimura which tells the story of the deaf survivors of Hiroshima.

It provides a brief history of the events leading up to Japan’s involvement in World War II and the various steps taken by the American government before the dropping of the A-Bomb including the decision not to inform the Japanese of the attack and the opposition of many American scientists to the decision.

Chisato Minamimura address the audience using sign language as well as providing English language captions on the screen which also displays diagrams and images related to the event.

Additionally, even though this is a “deaf production” there is a low level soundscape which heightens the experience of the show.

While Minamimura uses sign language her hand movements and facial expressions carry an emotional dimension.

The description of the flight of the plane carrying the bomb is brilliantly conveyed with diagrammatic maps as well as graphic rendering of the plane. Minamimura acts as the  pilot, moving and  jiggling with the vibrations of the plane and these scenes are intercut with images of her as a worker in the field looking up at the plane and as individual running and working, soldiers saluting.

When the bomb drops the sound accompaniment abruptly stops and there is total silence and we are put in the place of the deaf who never heard the noise of the explosion.

Then there are images of black rain and we are bombarded with a welter of diagrammatic images of arms, legs  and hands to signify the effects of the blast.

The interviews with survivors tells of the personal and social consequences of the  aftermath, including forced sterilisation and the ongoing discrimination experienced by these isolated members of Japanese society including the story about a deaf barber who wanted to expand his business but was continually rejected for a bank loan. 

Apart from one image of the destroyed city Minamimura has not included images of the effects of the bomb or the dead, although  statements by the deaf survivors speak of seeing the dead.  

The work is a slightly surreal mixture of  theatre, dance and mime which is relentlessly engaging in its innovative and almost detached form of story-telling.

Streaming on Vidzing
Online 12 – 26 March

https://www.vidzing.tv/te-ahurei-toi-o-tamaki-or-auckland-arts-festival/e9c50adb-40a3-4028-9972-e32dbb60cf9f

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Requiem: Victoria Kelly, Simon O’Neill, Jayne Tankersley, Ruby Solly

Requiem

Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra

Auckland Town Hall

March 11

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

The major work of the APO’s latest concert as part of the Auckland Arts Festival was Victoria Kelly’s “Requiem”, a reworking of to traditional form but with a distinctly New Zealand voice.

The evening was preceded by several other pieces including the opening work “Ātahu”  composed by Ruby Solly and performed by Maianginui, a group comprised  of four women who use various performance methods such as poi and  taonga pūoro.

“Ātahu” was a reworking of the tale  of Tinirau and Kae,.which is an origin story which features a group of Māori women, led by Hineteiwaiwa who need to identify the tohunga Kae by making him smile. They try all sorts of performance types, including haka and various taonga pūoro to get him to smile and reveal his crooked tooth, so they can identify him, and kill him for a previous misdemeanour.

The work fuses orchestral music and Māori with a mix of eerie and celebratory sounds where the two groups often merged and then at other times there were distinct contrasts.

This was followed by  Claude Debussy; s “Nocturnes”, three short symphonic poems which are depictions of various scenes which are also descriptions of mental or dreamlike states. So, they describe the beauty of Nature as well as the overwhelming sensations of the  reverie.

The first movement  “Nuage” painted an  impressionist scene with indistinct colours while also giving the impression of changing states of slumber, dreaming and bliss with conductor Vincent Hardaker acting as a dream merchant, shaping dreams and nightmares.

 Fêtes with its dance rhythms suggest a more dramatic landscape with threatening clouds, lightning and thunder which also alluded to the notion of an awakening from a terrible dream with Hardaker taking on a more fiendish approach to the music.. 

With Sirènes the Luminata Voices Women’s Chamber Choir created images of the sea sparkling in the moonlight, and the alluring song of the Sirens which suggested a troubled sleep with the textures of the voices and instruments blending sublimely and choir taking on a heavenly sound .

The Mahler song “Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen” opened the second half of the concert and was an ideal introduction to the “Requiem”. In the song the singer tells of having  become lost to the world saying “I really have died to the world. I have died to all the world’s turmoil, and I rest in a silent realm. I live in solitude in my heaven, In my love, in my song.”

Simon O’Neill sang it beautifully with long, unfolding, unhurried melodic lines along with the slow-moving harmonies of the orchestra,

He expressed sorrow and loneliness accompanied by the woodwind which added some emotional richness. At time he was the man crying in the wilderness while the shimmering strings hinted at an enveloping darkness.

Victoria Kelly’s Requiem has very little darkness to it. She used  poems by prominent New Zealand poets – Bill Manhire, Sam Hunt, Chloe Honum, Ian Wedde and James K Baxter to provide various  narratives with the writers contemplating the vastness and minutae of nature and the world.  There were continual references to light and the sky which spoke of an awakening rather than death.

After an orchestral opening which had a hint of taonga pūoro Simon O Neill’s anguished voice led us through Bill Manhire’s “Prayer” accompanied by some unsettling music from the orchestra. This was followed by the Sam Hunt poem “Requiem” with images of the lighthouse and a metaphorical lighthouse keeper who controls the light of the heavens. In a touch of theatricality the song was enhanced by a bright spotlight illuminating the stage.

The Luminata choir, joined by the Lux Singers provided additional depth to the work as the poet’s friend  ascended to the “the polished stars” accompanied by the jangling sounds of the xylophone, gong and tubular bells.

Unfortunately, while O’Neill’s voice was ideal for singing the Mahler it lacked the tone needed to fully illuminate the poems.

The other three songs  by Chloe Honum, Ian Wedde and James K Baxter were sung by soprano  Jayne Tankersley where her voice contrasted and merged with that of the choir. Occasionally the emotional  connection with the text of the poems was lost, swamped by the music which brilliantly created images of the sea / sky / earth interface with piercing woodwind, dramatic percussion and enveloping strings.

If you want to subscribe or follow New Zealand Arts Review site – www.nzartsreview.org.

The “Follow button” at the bottom right will appearand 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”

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Requiem: Victorira Kelly, Simon O’Neill. Jayne Tankersley, Ruby Solly

Auckland Arts Festival

Requiem

Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra

Auckland Town Hall

March 11

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

The major work of the APO’s latest concert as part of the Auckland Arts Festival was Victoria Kelly’s “Requiem”, a reworking of to traditional form but with a distinctly New Zealand voice.

The evening was preceded by several other pieces including the opening work “Ātahu”  composed by Ruby Solly and performed by Maianginui, a group comprised  of four women who use various performance methods such as poi and  taonga pūoro.

“Ātahu” was a reworking of the tale  of Tinirau and Kae,.which is an origin story which features a group of Māori women, led by Hineteiwaiwa who need to identify the tohunga Kae by making him smile. They try all sorts of performance types, including haka and various taonga pūoro to get him to smile and reveal his crooked tooth, so they can identify him, and kill him for a previous misdemeanour.

The work fuses orchestral music and Māori with a mix of eerie and celebratory sounds where the two groups often merged and then at other times there were distinct contrasts.

This was followed by  Claude Debussy; s “Nocturnes”, three short symphonic poems which are depictions of various scenes which are also descriptions of mental or dreamlike states. So, they describe the beauty of Nature as well as the overwhelming sensations of the  reverie.

The first movement  “Nuage” painted an  impressionist scene with indistinct colours while also giving the impression of changing states of slumber, dreaming and bliss with conductor Vincent Hardaker acting as a dream merchant, shaping dreams and nightmares.

 Fêtes with its dance rhythms suggest a more dramatic landscape with threatening clouds, lightning and thunder which also alluded to the notion of an awakening from a terrible dream with Hardaker taking on a more fiendish approach to the music.. 

With Sirènes the Luminata Voices Women’s Chamber Choir created images of the sea sparkling in the moonlight, and the alluring song of the Sirens which suggested a troubled sleep with the textures of the voices and instruments blending sublimely and choir taking on a heavenly sound .

The Mahler song “Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen” opened the second half of the concert and was an ideal introduction to the “Requiem”. In the song the singer tells of having  become lost to the world saying “I really have died to the world. I have died to all the world’s turmoil, and I rest in a silent realm. I live in solitude in my heaven, In my love, in my song.”

Simon O’Neill sang it beautifully with long, unfolding, unhurried melodic lines along with the slow-moving harmonies of the orchestra,

He expressed sorrow and loneliness accompanied by the woodwind which added some emotional richness. At time he was the man crying in the wilderness while the shimmering strings hinted at an enveloping darkness.

Victoria Kelly’s Requiem has very little darkness to it. She used  poems by prominent New Zealand poets – Bill Manhire, Sam Hunt, Chloe Honum, Ian Wedde and James K Baxter to provide various  narratives with the writers contemplating the vastness and minutae of nature and the world.  There were continual references to light and the sky which spoke of an awakening rather than death.

After an orchestral opening which had a hint of taonga pūoro Simon O Neill’s anguished voice led us through Bill Manhire’s “Prayer” accompanied by some unsettling music from the orchestra. This was followed by the Sam Hunt poem “Requiem” with images of the lighthouse and a metaphorical lighthouse keeper who controls the light of the heavens. In a touch of theatricality the song was enhanced by a bright spotlight illuminating the stage.

The Luminata choir, joined by the Lux Singers provided additional depth to the work as the poet’s friend  ascended to the “the polished stars” accompanied by the jangling sounds of the xylophone, gong and tubular bells.

Unfortunately, while O’Neill’s voice was ideal for singing the Mahler it lacked the tone needed to fully illuminate the poems.

The other three songs  by Chloe Honum, Ian Wedde and James K Baxter were sung by soprano  Jayne Tankersley where her voice contrasted and merged with that of the choir. Occasionally the emotional  connection with the text of the poems was lost, swamped by the music which brilliantly created images of the sea / sky / earth interface with piercing woodwind, dramatic percussion and enveloping strings.

Reviewed by Malcolm Calder

Blanc de Blanc Encore

Strut & Fret

Magic Mirrors Spiegeltent

Aotea Square

9 – 26 March

Reviewed by Malcolm Calder

Cabaret Lives!

Regular Festivalgoers may recall Strut & Fret’s initial iterations of Blanc de Blanc from 2019.  Well it’s back.  It’s bigger and it’s better.

This show (cos that’s what it essentially is) first saw the light of day a few years back, has come a long way from its Fringe origins and now thoroughly deserves its place in the contemporary mainstream.  Fret & Strut toured the original extensively, took on board a wide range of feedback as well as their own analysis and then gave it a comprehensive brush-up. 

The end result is something that’s tighter, slicker and reeks of sophistication. It has become entertainment for everyone with a capital E.  Along with the black, white and bling aesthetic, bubbles are everywhere and allusions to circussurface constantly, and Blanc de Blanc still managesto reference olde-world burlesque and cabaret, while remaining firmly implanted in a contemporary  world.

Somewhere in its dark and sometimes murky past New Zealand devised its own form of ‘cabaret’.  For a very long time too.  With only a handful of notable exceptions, NZ cabaret bore no relation to an artform devised and practiced elsewhere, especially in Europe.  Instead of intimate musical and other entertainment for ‘friendly’ audiences in small smokey rooms, ‘cabarets’ in New Zealand were really just big public dances with a live band before rock n roll arrived.  Nor did we grasp ‘burlesque’ as an artform.  Instead, we discarded satire, social commentary and often brilliantly contrived dance for a cheaper, sleazier version that tended to feature a fair bit of skin instead. And we consigned burlesque to Gentlemen’s Clubs (and even gentlemen’s clubs) largely because of a then-prevalence middle-class English faux social values.  The two terms followed similar paths in Australia.

However, things started to change in Europe during the latter half of the twentieth century.  Cabaret started to merge with burlesque, particularly in the Parisian and Berlin hangouts of the 1980s.  Magic acts, acrobatics and circus started to blend into music, dance and extravagant costuming.  Yes, skin still featured, but spectacular entertainment that appealed to a lot more people had become the name of the game.  Think David Bowie or even that aptly named music-theatre piece featuring Liza.  We were in the punk period.

And the burgeoning Fringe scene that drew the twentieth century to a close was the perfect time for contemporary cabaret to start intruding on the antipodes.

Today we have an artform that reaches far beyond overly serious gents with white beards satirising Weimar politics of the 1920s and reaches a post-punk generation that is a tad older than it was when the twentieth century drew to a close.   Yet one that, somehow, still reaches the Tik Tok generation and Auckland’s opening night audience was a microcosm of this melange.  Not family-fare admittedly (it’s all the alcohol y’know), but the odd suggestion of a flaccid penis beating a drum or the flash of a well-nippled breast (let’s call it a towel-tease) does more than enough to maintain interest across generations and keep one alert – just in case.  And it comes to us from Australia.

Because that is what Blanc de Blanc Encore does – it suggests, it implies, it teases and it is all done with outstanding showmanship that keeps its audience constantly entertained.  Then it suddenly breaks all the rules and darts off to introduce the unexpected.  No spoiler alert here, just suffice to say things may happen right in front of you.  Or on your lap, Or above you.  Or behind you.  Unexpected things.

However it’s not until the second act that things really take off.  Literally and well as figuratively – and in more than one sense too.  For me, that was when the term ‘circus-cabaret’ roared in from my sub-conscious.  Acrobatics, aerobatics, side-show thrills, a quick segway linking a torch singer to a tad of magic, some pure athleticism and you’ve got the lot.  Not entirely sure about the girl in a dress doing fairly mechanical rhythmic things to a bloke towards the end, but I can live with that.  Oh yes, there were feathers too.  Lots of feathers.  Feathers everywhere.  And even a reveal delivered by parachute.

Woven between these seemingly unrelated series of acts and cameos however, is an underlying appreciation for, and acknowledgement of, some of the finest traditions of cabaret.  Subtle and almost missable, but there all the same.  Congratulations to the company on that score.

Oh yes, I almost forgot to mention – the spiegeltent is the perfect setting for Blanc de Blanc Encore.  Its Victorian-styled stained glass mirrors and circular stage not only acknowledge the genre’s antecedents, but are an ideal setting for a fast moving show with a French vibe that breaks rules.  Remember to stock up on bubbles though. They feature throughout and the (surprisingly tiny) bar gets pretty busy during interval.

And that’s what we’ve got with Blanc de Blanc Encore in 2023.  Strut & Fret may have learned their craft on Australia’s fringe circuit but their 21st century production line has matured this show into a slick, highly-professional circus cabaret with a wide appeal.  Recommended.

If you want to subscribe or follow New Zealand Arts Review site – www.nzartsreview.org.

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Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Auckland Arts Festival

Revisor

A Kidd Pivot Production, created by Crystal Pite and Jonathon Young

Aotea Centre

March 9 – 11

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

In “Revisor” choreographer Crystal Pite  and theatre-maker Jonathon Young bring together the worlds of theatre and dance with Pite’s extraordinary dancers performing to the voices of Young’s actors.

It’s a biting cabaret-like satire revealing the corruption and absurdity within a bureaucratic institution and is based on “The General Inspector” by 19th century Russian playwright Nikolai Gogol.

The director of a provincial branch of a governmental institution is made aware of the arrival of an inspector. He mistakes this inspector for a low ranking official who is actually there to move a comma within a report. The impostor lets them  believe he is who he isn’t with a bureaucratic and absurd outcome.

The dancers are impelled by the edgy music (Owen Belton, Alessandro Juliani and Meg Roe) and the lip-synced dialogue, some of it by Jonathan Young but  most of it taken from the play.

The dancers responses and movements are exact and definite, reacting to the words and music as through articulated mechanical figures, their arms, legs and bodies contorted and gyrating to the words and sounds. At other times the dancers seem more reptilian both individually  and collectively as they slide and slither across the stage.

The opening set which is of the office of the Director of the Complex features his desk around which much of the action occurs, referencing one of Pite’s previous works at the Festival, “The Statement”, where four characters around a boardroom table are tasked by an  unseen power to fuel a conflict in another country.

Much of the music recalls the sounds of another Pite work, “Grace Engine”, performed  at a Wellington festival which used an electronic soundscape to provide the dancers with the impetus to dance.

Pite takes every simple movement and turns it into an elaborate gesture and each gesture finds a responding gesture from another dancers so there are waves of movement and reaction which spreads between dancers and across the stage in some wonderful displays of bodily movement, dance and mime.

All of the dancers provided remarkable performances with a couple of  standout displays.  Gregory Lau (The Revisor) was transfixing  in his dancing to the repeated and reworked phrase “the subject is moved” while Rakeem Hardy as Postmaster Wieland was startling in his convulsive exposure of the Revisor’s true identity

This is inventive dance at its best with surprise, drama and wit in each of the danced interactions. There is a lot of intense physical dance as well as sequences of rapid angular movements, with inventive duos and solo’s, their dancing emphasising the notions of action and reaction, tension and release.

The work is carried along largely by the narrator (Meg Roe) who provides some of the story as well as describing in detail what the dancers are doing in terms of their interactions with each other. Then at other times she becomes the persona of Crystal Pite giving choreographic directions.

The lighting was an essential component of the work offering  dance-like interactions. It was cleverly used both in terms of spotlighting the individuals and groups of dancers  but also to highlight the structures and shapes of bodies.

This is probably one of the best things on at the festival this year, but hurry there are only two more performances.

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To everyone involved in the arts

Everyone associated with the arts knows that the situation for artists in Aotearoa New Zealand has many problems. A national election is coming up on October 14 this year. This is a vital opportunity for the arts community to ask all the political parties to address some key concerns of our sector.

The arts are a positive and enriching part of our way-of-life – but how best to support those involved? During the last election, our political parties paid almost no attention to arts policy. It is a topic that tends to arouse worthy sentiments but few realistic plans.  For this election, we should demand that parties offer practical proposals.

We are a small, informal group of people involved in the arts. We are engaged in questioning politicians. We know that some other groups – perhaps your own – has been doing similar lobbying. We hope you’ll agree that we all need to step up our activitythis year if we are to make any impact, to contact politicians and seek media coverage. And it will be helpful for lobbying groups to keep in touch as the election approaches.

Our group is not aligned with any particular party. The result of our own research to date is that a few issues keep cropping up. We are interested to know whether you also see them as priorities or have other suggestions. The arts community will obviously be a more effective lobby if it can act in a collective way. But even if people do not agree with some of these points, we hope that everyone will be active on the arts issues of concern to themselves.

• New Zealand’s political parties do not clearly have a long-term (future-oriented) policy for strengthening our arts culture, and we want to hear one. (Other countries have been moving ahead of us on this issue.)

• For artists, the key issue is how financially to sustain a career in a country which poses special problems because it is small and marginal. Financial surveys of artists show that our artists earn on average very much less than the median annual income. Arts-related organisations and other parts of the infrastructure are also struggling to survive and grow. Is public funding adequate, and is it being distributed most effectively?

• There is strong feeling in the community that our arts and cultural funding bodies are not working well and need to be reviewed. Their priorities have been shaken up by financial pressures, by the pandemic, by support for diversity, by the rush to go digital, and by the inability to handle the number of applications. How should those issues be balanced against their legislative requirements to uphold artistic excellence and professionalism? The need for a review is highlighted by the many recent public controversies over CNZ and MCH decisions. Artists are also critical of time-consuming and bureaucratic application processes. Do any other countries have better models of art funding?

• The arts have been down-sized at all levels of education.  With political support, there has been a shift of emphasis to “STEM” subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics). How can we add the Arts to those priorities (“STEAM” rather than “STEM”)? The current cutback is going to do long-term damage to the arts, in relation to both practitioners and audiences.

• Our national media fail to cover or promote the arts. TVNZ and Radio NZ appear to have no dedicated arts reporters. Arts coverage is minimal in contrast to the extent of its sports coverage. More generally, there are questions still unanswered over the future of Radio NZ (National and Concert) and TVNZ, now that plans for the merger have been dropped.

• Why does Te Papa continue to receive such a large percentage of public arts funding? As a core function, our National Gallery run by Te Papa should be presenting a larger display of New Zealand art for visitors.

• Could our tax system become more supportive of the arts?

This year has also seen local crises, such as the proposal by Mayor Wayne Brown to slash arts funding across the Auckland region in the 2023-24 Annual Budget. Aucklanders can lodge an objection until March 28 (https://akhaveyoursay.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/hub-page/annual-budget-2023-2024).

Of course our society does have other urgent needs such as its health system and cyclone damage (and some artists have had personal experience of those problems). But that does not lessen the importance of the arts. They have always been a source of strength in troubled times. For a community to lose its culture is to risk losing its heart and spirit. 

If you agree that some communal lobbying is a good idea, please feel free to make comments on this list of priorities . We hope you will also talk with friends or members of your groups about the value over the coming months of raising arts-related issues with politicians and within any media, public forum, or on-line network.

Roger Horrocks can be contacted for feedback at (r.horrocks@xtra.co.nz).

Judy Darragh  

Sir Roger Hall   

Jennifer Ward-Lealand

Eve de Castro-Robinson

John Daly-Peoples  

Professor Peter O’Connor   

Roger Horrocks  

If you want to subscribe or follow my New Zealand Arts Review site – www.nzartsreview.org.

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Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

NZTrio

Homeland 1

Auckland Concert Chamber

March 6

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

With their first concert of the year the NZTrio provided a mixed programme of music spanning three centuries with the nineteenth century works by Dvorak, Mieczyslaw Weinberg’s Piano Trio of 1941 and two twenty first century works by the American Daniel Temkin and a newly commissioned work by New Zealander Eve De Castro-Robinson.

The highlight of the evening was Eve De Castro-Robinson\s “’the willing air”, a  title taken from one of her mother’s poems and inspired by a visit to the Mingary Quiet Place, a small chapel in central Melbourne.

The six sections of the work seem to reference various notions of spirituality and moods associated with a range of places and environment of meditation.

 In the first section as in the following five there was an emphasis on the silences as much as the sounds which the trio created and the players attempted at times create the least intrusive music . There was also an innovative approach to their playing with cellist Ashley Brown initially stroking his bow across the spike of the cello and violinist Amalia Hall often feathering her bow across the strings while Somi Kim plucked and strummed the  piano strings as well as rapping  on the piano itself.

The second section was a bit more hectic with sounds which conveyed a sense of the body and mind on edge, tingling with sensations. The third section which opens with a bell ringing shifts the setting  to an eastern temple with some wistful sounds from  the violin. The section closed with Kim and Brown doing some low-level whistling creating the sense of a voice crying in the wilderness.

The dreamlike fourth section opened with the repetition of the meditative “Om” sound with the heavy chords of the piano leading to a trance-like state while the fifth section seemed to conjure up the idea of  far off or forgotten sounds with the  final movement ending in a ghostly sleep mood which then slips into silence with Brown again playing a sombre sound on the spike of his cello.

The concert opened with Dvorak’s second Piano Trio  and offers a full-scale, four-movement program building on the trios of composers such as  Beethoven, and Mendelssohn. It opened with sprawling, ambitious sounds full of  colourful, folk-inspired tunes.  Brown  and Hall responded to Kim’s opening with ruminations on the complex variations with some refined, exquisite playing. Then in the second movement with  its, spacious dimensions and tender lament  the trio created some  wistful, wandering melodies.

In the latter part of the work there were playful exchanges between the players as they explored the endless variations  of the work suffused with a slight air of mystery.

Dvorak had written the work partly as a response to the death of his newborm daughter which explains some of the sombre nature of the work and the other major work on the programme, Weinberg’s Piano Trio was also a reaction to a bleak time in the Polish composers life.

Weinberg had only recently arrived in Russia having  fled from Nazi Germany The opening Prelude is dramatic, almost inspiring, with Halls’s evocative playing soaring above the march-like sounds of the piano, the music becoming progressively starker and sparer before a final pizzicato. The second movement features turbulent  piano chords along with rasping violin and a caustic cello all contributing to a sense of unease and despair.

The players managed the dirge like third movement  with its dance of death, finishing with a passage conveying light and redemption. Then in the final movement they revealed an understanding of the struggles,  despair and desperation behind the composer’s single-mindedness impetus.

Also on the programme was Temkin’s “Five Bagatelles which were written as his responses to the music of contemporary composers who had inspired him.

There was the shimmering sounds and folk music suggesting Benjamin Britten, the slightly jazzy sounds with a rigorous tempo of Bela Bartok, the open, poetic spaces of Copland and then the hints of contemporary sounds and  techniques alluding to the music of Dutilleux and Ligeti.

Throughout the  concert the three players demonstrated incredible musicianship and an awareness of the way the music needs to be interpreted.

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra Image; Adrian Malloch

The Radical

Beethoven Symphony No.8 and Symphony No.9 

Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra and Voices New Zealand
New Zealand Youth Choir, New Zealand Secondary Students’ Choir, The Graduate Choir New Zealand

Conductor Giordano Bellincampi

Choral Director Karen Grylls

Auckland Town Hall

March 3

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Ever since Beethoven’s 250^th celebration three years ago there have been numerous concerts featuring the composer’s works including several performances of his entire symphonic output. Orchestras have continued to attract large audiences to his work and the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra has been no exception. With their latest concert “The Radical” they performed the composers last two symphonies – No 8 and No9 on two subsequent nights, both to packed houses.

All of Beethoven’s symphonies are impressive and radical, each in their own way but the last two works show the composer to be at the height of his powers. The Eighth is his shortest symphony while the Ninth his longest at close to 70 minutes.

It is difficult to appreciate 200 years after these works were first performed just how  different his music was. He was a moderntist at heart, taking a radical approach   to the architecture and structure of the music on an overarching scale which had not been evident in much music up till then. His work was like a major novel when all before were short stories.

While, the Eighth is short Beethoven took a structurally radical approach which is not as apparent in his  other symphonies. There are several breaks or pauses with some passages not even fully resolved. In the short second movement he plays with  the rhythms, such as  the repeated staccato chords in the woodwind, or his trick of putting a fortissimo right next to a pianissimo.

There is also something of a  paradox with the symphony. At one level you’re listening to a light-hearted work, but Beethoven is in reality experimenting with the format, reforming the symphony.

Conductor Giordano Bellincampi recognised these aspects in the music as the work moved from the dramatic to the lyrical, his body movements changing from the dance-like to the grand, dramatic gesture.

The main themes of the work is not taken through a set of variations in the old style but through a set of reworkings which range  from the lyrical through to passages which reach a fever pitch.

In the second movement the timpani which are normally used as a base for the orchestra took on the role of soloists with a stirring display.

Some of these experiments are then elaborated on in the Ninth where he also draws on many of his earlier symphonies, notably the Fifth.

With the Ninth symphony one was aware of the orchestra creating a dynamic structure, a sonic temple worthy of the Heroic Man which the composer often reflects on in his works.

The first movement of the symphony which opens with sixteen hushed bars was followed by music that had an unsettling and edgy quality to it that subtly added an unexpected and provocative tone.

Bellincampi skilfully captured the constantly changing moods and dynamics, and made a point of keeping the volume and energy contained and there was also a sense of him building the architectural structure of the work. With his hand movements he appeared to be describing the shapes and forms  conjured up by the music .

He carefully explored various aspects of the music – the pathos, the drama and the lyrical. There were sequences where Bellincampi had the orchestra raging at full force and then he would calm the players down to not much more than a whisper.

Throughout the final movement which is a kind of symphony within a symphony, Bellincampi showed himself to be a master dramatist, adroitly managing the sense of unease and anticipation at the outset.

With the entrance of the chorus the wave of sound was like  a physical force, a  wonderfully daring and startling sound which continued along with the surging orchestra and the frantic Bellincampi as they raced on to the exhilarating climax of the “Ode to Joy.” 

The four soloists along with the combined choirs  delivered a  superlative performance. Bass Samuel Dundas gave a  strong and sure performance as did tenor Manese Latu with his stirring voice.  Mezzo Sally-Ann Russell and soprano Kirstin Sharpin provided a fine accompaniment with full rich voices.

The work has often been played as celebrations of freedom and the work resonated with many of the issues of present  times. These are summed up in Beethoven’s lifelong belief in hope and freedom. It shows the best of what humanity has to offer.

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John Daly-Peoples

John Edgar, Flag 20, marble  and granite – Artis Gallery

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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.