Tag: classical

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Tchaikovsky’s Violin

Auckland Philharmonia

Auckland Town Hall

September 26

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

The major work in the latest Auckland Philharmonia’s concert was Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto with soloist Chloe Chua who came with well-established credentials having won the Yehudi Menuhin International Competition for Young Violinists when she was 11.

It was immediately clear that she was an exceptional player with a self-contained, flawless approach to playing. But as well as a technical virtuosity she displayed an emotional sensitivity.

With her playing she maintained a distance from the orchestra, with an internal focus and much of the time she seemed to be in a reverie.

The concerto according to many who have played the work since it was composed is notoriously difficult to play, as it requires exceptional technical mastery of various techniques like double stopping and arpeggios as well as playing at a fast pace for extended periods.

Chua manged the piece effortlessly, notably with the cadenza where she was masterful in her control and delivery. Her playing was impressive with a technical brilliance as well as providing and intelligent and sympathetic interpretation of the music.

After the dramatic display in the first movement her delivery of the second movement revealed the sweet lyricism before she performed a range of tones, textures and tempos, continually testing the limits of the violin.

Throughout the work she was a whirlwind of musical dynamism and it was miracle that she didn’t collapse at the end of the work.

While she may have given a spirited performance of the Violin concerto receiving rounds of applause it was her mercurial version of Amazing Grace which showed another aspect of her approach. Her playing of the work and her variations were mesmerizing and by turns anguished, sprightly and whimsical.

Sung as ever conducted with dramatic flourishes as well as intensive elegant hand gestures and at other times seemed to exude an electrical force directed at the orchestra.

Franz von Suppe who was a rival of Strauss in producing Viennese light music provided the opening piece on the programme with his “Morning Noon and Night in Vienna Overture” which features waltz and polka rhythms, reflecting Viennese musical traditions. The work was originally the incidental music to a comic play “Morning Noon and Night in Vienna” which captures the vibrant atmosphere of Vienna through its three distinct sections.

The opening section featured an impressive cello solo, following on from a brass chorale. The solo, played by a meticulous Ashley Brown was like a mini cello concerto imbedded in the work and consisted of a lengthy Viennese style melody accompanied by the harp.

The work had several dynamic dance sequences which had the orchestra racing at a hectic pace, barely contained by conductor, Shiyeon Sung.

With Haydn’s  Symphony No 93, the first of his London Symphonies Sung showed brilliant control of the orchestra allowing each of the instruments to shine and ensuring  the drama and contrasts of the work were clear and that the intricate and unusual dynamics of the work were allowed to evolve, slowly revealing the beauty of the work.

The final work on the programme was Stravinsky’s “Divertissement from The Fairy Kiss” a ballet he composed in 1928 based on the Hans Christian Anderson tale and dedicated to the memory of Tchaikovsky.

Each of the four sections used elements of Tchaikovsky’s piano works and songs including a reference to one of his preludes in the first movement and in the final minutes of the last movement he quotes Tchaikovsky’s song, “None But The Lonely Heart”.

The music featured magical and unusual sounds and was filled with drama and lively movement which conveyed a sense of narrative and the creation of character. Though not as novel as his other ballet music Sung was able to reveal the works lyricism and romanticism shaping the music with elegant hand gestures

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Reviewed by John daly-Peoples

Brahms 3

Auckland Philharmonia

Auckland Town Hall

February 27

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

The “Brahms 3”concert began with Romanian composer Gyorgy Legeti’s “Concert Romanesc” written in 1951. The work opens with joyous images of landscape studded with hints of folk music. These passages combined humour and experimentation, qualities which inhabit much of his later music.

From the middle of the piece there were more sombre sounds, as though confronting the history of his country as well as the suffering and death of his parents in Auschwitz during World War II.

As the work became darker and bleaker there was a whirling dance of death moving to a finale where the whole orchestra exploded with lively, suffocating sounds.

Following his performance last week James Ehnes’ performance of Bartok’s “Violin Concerto No 1” was highly anticipated. He did not disappoint. With the soulful opening movement he was initially joined by Andrew Beere and Lauren Bennett before others from the string section joined, adding to the density and complexity of Ehnes’ playing.

Following on from the strings, the woodwinds provided a slightly unsettling voice and even as the orchestra gained in intensity, Ehnes’ violin rose up , soaring above the sounds of the orchestra with some strident sounds which were reflected in Ehnes’ rigid  demeanour and exacting playing.

From the second movement on, his playing style changed, taking on a more passionate and expressive approach with some more hectic, gypsy-like playing as he battled against the sweep of the growling orchestra. However, even when he was frantically playing there was a sense of his being totally in control.

With his mastery of the violin, his skilful changes in pace, and tone the audience  was treated to a display by a consummate violinist.

While Ehnes received a rapturous ovation for the Bartok it was his encore, Eugene Ysaÿe’s “Violin Sonata No.3 ‘Ballade” .that got a tumultuous reception. The solo work dedicated to the Romanian violinist and composer George Enescu which was beautifully structured requires an intelligent and skilful player – all the qualities that Ehnes was able to bring to the piece.

The big work on the programme was the Brahms “Symphony No 3, a work which is full of marvellous melodies but which is something of an enigmatic work.

In many ways it is a forerunner of the impressionist works of Debussy and Ravel reflecting the interest of the Impressionist artists of the late nineteenth century. Much of the music is linked to visions of landscape, light and shade, colours and texture.

These images parallel a world of emotions and feelings, the composers inner and exterior worlds mingling. In building  a structure based on these links Brahms explores the nature if the human condition. This is very evident in the final movement with its passages of drama and tumult suggesting natural forces as well as the inner turmoil of love and passion.

The final works on the programme, three of Brahm’s Hungarian Dances had Conductor Bellincampi conducting at breakneck speed and while he spent much of his time dancing on the podium the orchestra were swept up by the music and carried along by its own impetus.

Bellincampi used the dances to book-end a farewell to the orchestra’s Music Librarian, Robert Johnson who has worked at the orchestra for over thirty years.

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Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

NZ Trio

Unquiet Dream

Auckland Concert Chamber

May 19

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

With their latest concert “Unquiet Dream” the NZ Trio have shown again their ability to deliver concerts featuring music which is innovative as well as drawing on the established canon. This approach shows an intelligent and sophisticated approach to chamber music  which makes their concerts  always rewarding.

The first work on the programme was  Benjamin Britten’s “Introduction and Allegro for Piano Trio”, a very early work in which the young composer  was trying out his approaches to the modernist music which was then beginning to take an interest in.

The work opened with the instruments tentatively seeking out an elusive  melody, playing various sequences which overlapped and intersected as though the composer was assembling his musical structure out of disparate elements.

Many of these sequences were ethereal, touching on the flickering images of water, wind, shadows and scudding clouds. This search for physicality was reflected in the physicality of the playing of the instruments – the blunt striking of the piano and the sharp rasps of the violin and cello.

In Chris Cree Browns  “The Second Triumvirate”  he imagines each of the instruments having its own language  with which they engage in communications  which range from the  simple human conversations  to the more intricate interactions of animal and bird sounds. All these interchanges there are filled dramatic echoes and reverberations.

Lera Auerbach’s  “Trio No2 Triptych” is sub-titled “This mirror has three faces” and she says of the work that “one can look at three different faces or roles of the same person or at three different personalities”.

So, each of the instruments takes on an aspect of the personality which can be in conflict or in harmony with the other. This psychoanalytic approach hints at the idea of multiple personalities or the different faces a person presents – the public, the private or the intimate.

The work is filled with shifting dynamics. Simple sequences develop and change, minimalist statements escalate to create bold and adventurous musical forms.

Shards of music coalesce and then disperse, in surreal juxtaposition, the various elements leaving the image of the person unresolved.

Where  things seem to fall apart in Auerbach’s piece there is a very different outcome with Mendelsohn’s “Piano Trio in D Minor”. With this piece the Trio was focussed on drawing all the elements together to create a symphonic sweep for one of his great “songs without words” providing the work with an emotional richness and depth.

The work hints at the composer’s own desires and struggles using the instruments to create a narrative in which he is by turns heroic, romantic and despondent.  

Throughout the work pianist Sarah Watkins provided the measured mainstay with both a delicacy and vividness of expression. Amalia Hall’s violin  provided a range of emotion from the sensuous to the dramatic and Ashley Brown’s cello ranged from the melancholic to the agitated.

With their playing they were able to capture the romanticism, the wistfulness and the drama of the work as well as effortlessly  incorporating references to  the composers his own Midsummer Night’s Dream and the that of Bach.