Tag: music

Categories
Reviews, News and Commentary

APO’s Other Worlds

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Shuiyeon Sung

Other Worlds

Auckland Philharmonia

Auckland Town Hall

March 28

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

It’s easy to appreciate why Sibelius’s Symphony No 2 has been  seen as a programmatic work conveying idea about patriotism and nationalism. At the time of writing the symphony the Russian  occupiers were restricting the use of the Finnish language and attempting to change the nature of Finnish society.

So, with this symphony, while the Finnish language was being stifled  Sibelius was allowing the Finnish voice to be heard through music  which reflected on Finnish language, landscape  and history.

He attempted to convey in music what the painting, ”The Attack” by the Finnish artist Edward Isto did visually. Painted at the same time it illustrated the feelings of many Finns. The work depicts a double headed eagle, representing the Russian state, attempting to snatch a book of laws from a while clad female.

Edward Isto, The Attack

The opening movement with its stirring blasts of the woodwinds and horns followed by the surging strings provided musical images of landscape which conveyed ideas of Finnish Nationalism.  Later when the vigorously plucked cellos contrasted with the deep sounds of the  bassoons there  a sense of personal loneliness or struggle.

The notion of the individual alone in the landscape and awe at their surroundings which is present throughout the work was also apparent in the opening work on the programme, Mendelssohn’s “Hebrides Overture” which also linked landscape, history and myth.

Later the militaristic sounds of a rampant orchestra ended with  a triumphant anthem all this sounding like  a great storm  and its aftermath.

The work was by turns  nostalgic, revolutionary and celebratory with repeated themes evoking a call to arms and a new dawn.

The newest work on the programme saw a trio of South Korean artists  on stage with violinist Inmo Yang playing Unsuk Chin’s 2001 work  “Violin Concerto No 1“ and the orchestra conducted by Shuiyeon Sung.

Inmo Yang

Unsuk Chin’s Violin Concerto is one of her most famous works and has won a number of awards and is  fine example of cross-cultural music where the experimental and the traditional are fused.

Inmo Yang backed by a percussion rich orchestra – marimba, gongs, harps, bells and xylophone  gave an extraordinary performance.

From the first bars of the first movement with his rapid bowing, he attempted to dominate the orchestra in what seemed at times like a competition.

His almost dementated, playing and the  abstract sequences he produced contrasted with the more controlled playing of the orchestra with many of the sequences sounding  as though Yang and the orchestra were responding to  different musical scores.

His high-pitched sounds worked well with the percussion instruments producing otherworldly feelings and soft disturbing moments. There were also random moments of intimacy as well as magical sounds full of exuberant colour as he joined with and riffed off the various percussion instruments.

In the final movement his dexterous playing  set the stage for  a battle between violin and orchestra where their sounds would combine and then separate with a massive sonic, Doppler Effect.

Chin’s violin concerto requires a player who has focus, exceptional technical skills and understanding of the work. Inmo Yang possessed all those qualities.

Future APO concerts

April 11th

Viennese Feast

Conductor Christoph Altstaedt
Violin Amalia Hall

Brahms Variations on a Theme by Haydn
Haydn Violin Concerto No.1
Mahler (arr. Britten) What the Wild Flowers Tell Me
Schubert Symphony No.6 ‘Little C major’

May 2

Bach & Bruckner

Conductor Johannes Fritzsch
Piano David Fray

J.S. Bach Keyboard Concerto No.5, BWV 1056
J.S. Bach Keyboard Concerto No.4, BWV 1055
Bruckner Symphony No.9

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”

Categories
Reviews, News and Commentary

Barton and Brodsky

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Auckland Arts Festival

Barton and Brodsky

Auckland Concert Chamber

May 22

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

It seems misleading  to describe the didgeridoo as a primitive instrument. The sounds it makes fit well within the scope of much contemporary music, there is  complexity to their playing and they have an extraordinary musical history which parallels the history of many European instruments.

The instrument’s voice also seems to connect with the land and the history of the Aboriginal  people with a deep spirituality .

The opening of the recent Barton and Brodsky concert heard that voice as  the rumble of  the didgeridoo  welled up from the underworld to fill the Auckland Concert Chamber. This was didgeridoo of William Barton joining the string quarter for a remarkable concert of music, where the instrument contributed to several of the works.

Barton performed in Peter Sculthorpe’s “String Quartet No 11 “Jabiru Dreaming” which describes the Australian landscape and its animal life. His fitful and variable  breathing  gave a sense of the breath of life which giving soul to the land, and the sharp bursts of sound mapped out the patterns of landscape and geology. The strings contributed sharp shrill sounds of bird life and the murmurs of the bush.

In” Minjerribah” by Robert Davidson which paints a picture of the North Stradbroke Island Bartons didgeridoo again  provided a sense of the timeless landscape while the strings created  an almost romantic vision with evocative sounds of bird life,  the shrill of cicadas, waves churning over beaches, deep blue skies and sun.

Barton also made a major contribution to the concert with his own composition “Square Circles beneath the Red Desert Sand” which he introduced walking from the rear of the hall channelling the spirits and the song lines of Australia, the sounds of his  voice echoed by the strings.  His singings took the form of a ritual, like the chants of many religions. Here along with the savage strings of the quartet, the sounds of the European instruments and didgeridoo showed the power of music to provide memory and narrative  reaching across cultures.

Before the two works featuring the didgeridoo, the quartet played Henry Purcell’s early “Fantasia No 5 in D Minor” with all the elegance the work requires with Paul Cassidy’s viola adding a deep sonorous tone.

This finely crafted work was in marked contrast to the main work on the programme, “Janacek’s  String Quartet No 11”. This work is subtitled “Intimate Letters” and is a musical representation of some 700 letters sent between Janáček and Kamila Stösslová which represented the composer’s intense emotions in  that doomed  relationship.

Passages of the work were played at not much more than a whisper which were then punctuated by dramatic piecing sounds from the strings as though representing the turmoil of  the composer’s mind. In many of the sequences, violinist Krysia Ocostowicz led the group with her insistent playing and in the final movement played with a fevered urgency mirroring that of the composer.

The group also  played Stravinsky’s “Three Pieces for String Quartet” which was written after his ballet music for Petrushka and owes much to folk music , the carnival and snippets recalling Latin chants.

They also played Salina Fisher’s “Torino – Echoes of the Putorino”. The putorino is  a Māori instrument which can produce sounds as varied as a trumpet or a flute which the group were able to replicate. But while they were able to produce the sounds of the instrument, they were also imitating the sounds of the New Zealand bush and the native birds with the bright strings achieving the sound of several birds including the kiwi.

With Andrew Ford’s “String Quartet No 7: Eden Ablaze” which was a memorial and requiem to the Australian bush fires of 2019 / 20 the group captured the drama of the event, visions of the devastated landscape and the flight of the animals.  There were surging sounds of the combined strings as well high-pitched sounds of distress while  the didgeridoo provided a plaintive background.

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”

Categories
Reviews, News and Commentary

Gravity & Grace : a refreshing and inventive NZ play

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Auckland Arts Festival

Gravity & Grace by Eleanor Bishop and Karin McCracken.

Q Theatre

Until March 24

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Gravity  & Grace is adapted from Kraus’ account of the unsuccessful film she made in the 1990’s – Gravity & Grace. That film follows Grace as she finds a connection to a cult predicting doomsday and the arrival of a spaceship, and Gravity, who leaves New Zealand to try her luck as an artist in New York City.

Kraus is probably most well known for her book and TV series “I Love Dick” but Eleanor Bishop and Karin McCracken have mined he obscure Gravity & Grace to make a play which addresses ideas about the flawed or failed artist as well as reflecting on the creative process generally.

The play set in the US and New Zealand where much of the filming was shot because she had obtained NZ Arts Council funding. We follow her inexperienced attempts as a director and her unsuccessful efforts to get interest from the film festivals and agents. Along with this we delve into her personal and professional relationships which blight the films development.

Her own attempts at creating art works are paralleled in her homage  to three other flawed creatives: the French writer and philosopher Simone Weil and her book La pesanteur et la grâce (Gravity and Grace), the American artist Paul Thek whose star burnt out after an initial burst of success and  the German Red Army activist Ulrike Meinhof.

Its as if she is saying these great artists also made mistakes, just like  me.

The two writers of the play also are the stars of the work with Eleanor Bishop’s faultless direction and  Karin McCracken giving an incisive portrayal of  Chris Kraus.

McCracken is on stage the whole time and holds the play together with her range of emotions as well as some witty dialogue . She is  also cleverly presented with many sequences featuring her filmed. Often her projected head loomed over her as she sat at her desk or she was shown from strange angles suggesting the characters many dimensions.

The cast play a variety of roles including Andy Warhol (Sam Snedden); Ulrike Meinhof (Ni Dekkers-Reihana); Simone Weil (Rongopai Tickwell) and Paul Thek (Simon Leary). Sneddon also plays Sylvère Lotringer, Kraus’s husband as well as Gavin her S&M phone lover.

Much of the success of the play comes from the innovative staging created by designer Meg Rollandi, the visuals of Owen McCarthy, and Rachel Neser, the soundscape designed  by Emi 恵美 Pogoni and lighting by Rob Larsen.

The work is overwritten at times and could do with a trim and there are a few sequences such as the cast working on what was possibly a Paul Thek mural which doesn’t seem to add much to the work.

But it is one of the most refreshing and inventive recent New Zealand works with  fine writing, and suburb stage craft.

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”

Categories
Reviews, News and Commentary

The Kings Singers: Vocal Magicians

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Auckland Arts Festival

The King’s Singers, Finding Harmony

Holy Trinity Csthedral

March 14

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

The King’s Singers  are the most well-known and probably the greatest exponents of  cappella singing who have been touring the world’s major  concert venues for the last fifty years.

With their sole Auckland performance, “Finding Harmony they displayed their superb technical skills and an extraordinary blend of vocal cohesion.

As well their ability to sing like a choir of angels they can sing like a rowdy pub crowd or an earnest revolutionary mob.

They understand what music is capable of and why it is important. They are not merely singing great songs with interesting lyrics, they are singing songs which have inspired people at particular times.

Their programme presented songs grouped together with sets from the time of the Reformation, works from Africa, Georgia, Estonia and the Scottish Highlands.

They opened with songs under the title “I have a dream“ featuring music of the US Civil Rights movement including works by Mahalia Jackson and U2.

The U2 song, simply titled “M.L.K.” opened in a sombre mood with some of the voices created a bagpipe-like sound with the voices floating above the hum of the pipes, the  funereal sounds slowly changing to that of the reflective.

Another set was of songs focused on the Estonian struggles against the Soviet occupation of the late twentieth century.

There was “Parismaalase”  a work by Vejio Tormis with its primitive sounds and rhythms  and the refrain “tabu-tabu”  (taboo) repeated 300 times the chant referencing the inability of the Estonians to speak out during the Soviet occupation. Accompanied by a single drum their voices ranbged from that of a whisper to a shout.

With a trio of Georgian songs, the group explored several traditional songs which had a mix of extotic sounds which showed the influence of Eastern music and a different approach to singing with sounds like that of a mouth harp along with a piercing yodel-like sound in one of the works.

They introduced their suite of works under the title of “Lost Songs of the Highlands” with a short history of the Highland Clearances before singing John Cameron’s wistful longing for the Scottish landscape. Their singing of “Loch Lomond” which they made into an achingly sad work telling of the separation of  man and wife as well as the separation of the land. They gave these works a real power with their voices replicating the sounds of the pipes and fiddle along with some plaintive whistling.

They presented music of the Reformation much of which was set in motion by Martin Luther, developing an alternative to the spiritual monopoly of the Roman Catholic Church . This Protestant music changed from the  polyphonic motets sung in latin to a simpler style which was illustrated with  Luther’s very own hymn, “Ein feste Burg”, which became something of an anthem for the Protestant movement, being sung in the common language with more relevant lyrics.

They also sang works by the English composers William Byrd and Thomas Tallis who  were more Catholic in their output favouring elaborate compositions and the singers made the most of this quality with their entwined voices.

The final miscellany of works included a witty mashup of the Mary Poppins  song “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious and “Take Care of the Children”,  a work composed by Robert Wiremu, setting the words of Dame Whina Cooper to music. Here the singers also managed to  imitate the sounds of the koauou (flute) and porotiti (whirling hummer). In a tribute to the visionary Māori leader.

The final work on the programme was their version of the Beatles song “When I’m Sixty-four” where the singers imitated the instrumental sounds rounding out a concert filled with moments of vocal magic.

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”

Categories
Reviews, News and Commentary

Beyond Words: a lament, a reflection and a celebration

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Oum with conductor Fawzi Haimor and the NZSO Image Jono Tucker

Auckland Arts Festival

Beyond Words

New Zealand Symphony Orchestra

Auckland Town Hall

March 10

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

The “Beyond Words” concert which had its third performance following its premiere in Christchurch and a performance in Wellington was a collaboration to promote unity and peace through music and to honour the lives lost in Ōtautahi Christchurch on 15 March 2019.

Conducted by Fawzi Haimor the concert featured the Moroccan vocalist OUM  El Ghait Benessahraoui and Cypriot/Greek oud player Kyriakos Tapakis.

Vocalist Abdelilah Rharrabti, saz player Liam Oliver, vocalist and daf player Esmail Fathi, oud player Kyriakos Tapakis, vocalist Oum and composer John Psathas [From Wellington concert] image Jono Tucker

The concert also featured  works by the American Valerie Coleman, Reza Vali, Arvo Pärt and the world premiere of a new work by the New Zealand composer John Psathas.

Psathas’ “Ahlan wa Sahlan”, composed in collaboration with OUM and Tapakis, uses the Arabic welcome to let people know they are in a place where they belong. The work fused together musical styles from Eastern and Western music traditions.

The work features energetic and dramatic sounds with subtle changes of texture and moods, providing a background for the two soloists OUM  El Ghait Benessahraoui and Kyriakos Tapakis.

The composer as previously demonstrated his ability to compose celebratory anthems having written works for the ceremonies at 2004 Athens Olympics and with this work there is sense of the music being both a lament, a reflection and a celebration. With waves of shifting percussive and evocative sounds

OUM was resplendent in her shimmering gown and elaborate head covering  Her voice with its roots in Morocco  and in the tradition of Egyptian singers of the 1930’s like Umm Kulthum drifted and soared above the orchestra’s tapestry of eastern sounds along with answering voice of Tapakis’s oud.

Her singing and movements at times suggested she was in a trance-like state while at other times she exuded an emotional intensity  and in her singing  “Hijra” she sounded like a French chaunteuse. Later there were passages where her voice was close to over-elaborate crooning.

Tapakis provided a riveting performance where he played together with Xylophone and timpani in a filmic sounding section filled with percussive sounds

The other major work in the programme was Arvo Pärt‘s Silouan’s Song which is  fine example of the composer’s low-key minimalism with simple repetition and contemplation sequences of notes.

This was a reflective piece which connected contemporary music with Medieval plainchant and Eastern mystical  music and the various sections were stressed by the meditative silences between them giving the work a ritualistic feel.

In the first part of the programme there were five shorter works including a traditional work sung by Hasbi Rabbi and Molle Mamad Jan which had an achingly unsettling melodic line as well as a beguiling performance by OUM.

There was also  contemplative, work by the Iranian Reza Vali which was filled with despondency and funeral sounds hinting at a vision of paradise.

Kyriakos Tapakis performed his own work “Mantilatos” which was filled with extraordinary sounds and rhythms. While the NZSO accompanied  him, emphasising much of the work it would have been more interesting if he had been able to play as a soloist.

A major disappointment with the programme was the lack of English translations for the various vocal segments. Presumably the lyrics were relevant to the spirit of the event and even though the concert was one that was “beyond words”  with the music conveying emotional and spiritual dimensions it was pity the audience was not able to  appreciate the greater depth which would have come from a knowledge of the word.

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”

Categories
Reviews, News and Commentary

The APO’s colourful “Italian Style”

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Franz Schubert View of Florence

In the Italian Style

Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra

Auckland  Town Hall

February 29

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

In the early nineteenth century it was fashionable to do a Grand Tour with Italy as the prime destination. Artists, writers and composers all sought to travel there to find inspiration.

The APO’s “In The Italian Style” presented works by three composers who were themselves were enthralled by various aspects of Italian music, history and landscape.

The first work on the programme was Schubert’s Overture in C “In the Italian Style” which was not a response to Italy itself but rather to the interest in Italian music at the time , notably the exoticism  of Rossini.  Schubert’s impressionist depiction of Italy conveys images of street life, dances and the leisurely stroll through classical  ruins captures the energy, colours and contrasts of his invented Italy which is a measure of the composer’s ability to convey images and sight he had never seen. The work also shows the young eighteen-year-old trying to move his compositions out of the traditions of Viennese music  of the time.

Mendelssohn was twenty-one when he travelled to Italy where he was captivated  by the art, architecture and landscape. When he was given a commission, he used his impressions of the country as the basis of his Symphony No 4 “The Italian”. While he had been despairing of Italian concert music, he was taken with local Neapolitan folk dance styles like the saltarello. This influence is seen in the final wild, breakneck movement which captures the drama of the dance and Mendelssohn’s vision of Italy.

The first three movements were filled with dramatic contrasts,-  massive sounds  which suggested the grandeur of the Alps as well as softer sounds which evoked contemplation  of art works and architecture.

Conductor Giordana Bellincampi displayed his astute conducting skills throughout the concert, at times creating dynamic waves of sound while at other times having orchestra whisper as in the opening of the second movement which depicts dawn breaking with bursts of sunlight. 

The major work on the programme was Hector Berlioz’s Harold in Italy with Robert Ashworth and his viola taking on the  character of Harold, the heroic figure based loosely on Byron’s Childe Harold, a wanderer who observes scenes of Italian life.

The four movements depicting outdoor scenes from various parts of the country were all derived from the composer’s experiences while travelling in Italy.

While the work is the composer’s personal response to Italy there seem to be reference to Byron’s epic poem throughout the work as in the references to Florence, its landscape and history.

A softer feeling for her fairy halls.

   Girt by her theatre of hills, she reaps

   Her corn, and wine, and oil, and Plenty leaps

   To laughing life, with her redundant horn.

   Along the banks where smiling Arno sweeps,

   Was modern Luxury of Commerce born,

And buried Learning rose, redeemed to a new morn.

Berlioz infuses his music with evocative imagery – the drama of the mountains, the softness of the light and the richness of the country’s art and history.

Robert Ashworth’s muted viola sounds helped paint an initial picture of the world-weary traveller but there were also touches of wonderment, solitude and merriment conveyed by his instrument.

Much of the time Ashworth played as though part of the orchestra, his sounds nestling in the luxurious colours of the orchestra but then there would come passages of sheer exuberance and his playing would rise above the orchestra akin to the emotional outbursts of  Harlod himself in his reactions to scenes and events.

Ashworth himself was attentive to the conductor but also the orchestra and he followed their playing intensely, as though he were Harold witnessing a new spectacle.

There was a clever bit theatricality at the close of the work as Ashworth exited the stage to reappear a few minutes later up by the organ where he was joined by a string trio to play the final moments of the work.

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”

Categories
Reviews, News and Commentary

On the cusp: a trio of masterworks

Review by Peter Simpson

Yeol Eum Son Photo: Marco Borggreve

Beethoven 7

Auckland Philharmonia

Auckland Town Hall

February 22

Reviewed by Peter Simpson

The three works in the second APO concert of the Premier Series for 2024: Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 24 in C Minor, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7, and the Overture to Rossini’s The Barber of Seville were all written within a thirty year period, 1786-1816: the Mozart in 1785-86, the Beethoven in 1812, and the Rossini in 1816. This period, on the cusp between the ‘classical’ and ‘Romantic’ periods, is one of the most consequential in the history of music. Each of these works is a masterwork in its own right; collectively they made for a supremely enjoyable and satisfying evening. The APO under Giordano Bellincampi, with South Korean soloist Yeol Eum Son in the Mozart, were in fine fettle.

Rossini just missed out on being a contemporary of  Mozart’s by being born in the year after Mozart’s death in 1791; Beethoven was twenty when Mozart died, just on the brink of his great career.

The Overture to The Barber of Seville scurries along entertainingly in Rossini’s instantly recognisable and ingratiating style. It is ‘feel good’ music, clearly enjoyed by the musicians, and bound to put listeners into a receptive frame of mind.

With her pale skin and flamboyant scarlet gown, Yeol Eum Son made a striking visual contrast to the pervasive black-and-white of the orchestra. She proved to be an elegant and forceful soloist plunging instantly and confidently into the minor-key depths and mysteries of one of Mozart’s greatest scores.

One of only two piano concertos in a minor key (the other is No. 20), this work has the most elaborate instrumentation of any of Mozart’s concertos, being scored for one flute, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, timpani and strings: it is especially rare in Mozart for oboes and clarinets to be used simultaneously. One of the great pleasures of seeing this work performed live is to be able to witness as well as hear the subtle and intricate interplay between the wind instruments and strings so important in the emotional ambience of the music. After the rapt complexities of the long opening movement, the limpid simplicity of the slow movement was ravishing; the deft variations of the finale, too, were finely executed.

Apparently the young Beethoven once witnessed a rehearsal of this concerto (presumably with Wolfgang Amadeus at the keyboard) and remarked to his companion: “We shall never be able to do anything like that’. His own break-through piano concerto No. 3 written in 1800, four years later, shares the same C-minor key. Twelve years later Beethoven’s grand Seventh Symphony was one of the triumphs of his career. It was performed with the composer conducting in Vienna in 2013 at a charity concert for soldiers wounded in a battle with the forces of Napoleon (Beethoven’s fallen hero). The first audience apparently demanded an immediate repeat of the second movement allegretto. While not going quite so far as that, the shouts of acclamation from Auckland’s Town Hall audience registered genuine excitement at the conclusion of this electrifying performance. From the solemn and sonorous opening bars to the disciplined frenzy of the finale this marvellous music engaged both musicians and audience alike.

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”

Categories
Reviews, News and Commentary

IMPASSIONED MUSIC ACROSS THREE CENTURIES.

Reviewed by Peter Simpson

Julian Steckel

Passion & Mystery

Auckland Philharmonia

Auckland Town Hall

February 15th

Reviewed by Peter Simpson

This was a concert of impassioned music across three centuries. Or four if you count the exquisite Bach encore played by Julian Steckel after his commanding performance of Shostakovich’s Second Cello Concerto (representing the twentieth century), which was preceded by Gemma Peacock’s sonorous White Horses, representing the 21st century and followed by Tchaikovsky’s mighty Symphony No. 6, The Pathétique, representing the nineteenth century.

‘Passion & Mystery’ was the opening concert of the Auckland Philarmonia Orchestra’s 2024 Premier Series, under its capable conductor Giordano Bellincampi.

I am not a musician; I can’t read a musical score or play a musical instrument, so am incapable of informed discrimination when it comes to performances, though I can point to more than half a century of avidly listening to concerts, radio and records as a dedicated consumer of music.

I found this an absorbing and enjoyable concert. All three works are emotionally intense, as was to be expected given the concert’s moniker, ‘Passion and Mystery’, though sufficiently various in musical idiom to avoid monotony. So far as I could tell the orchestra played splendidly throughout and was well directed by the resident conductor. The house was nearly full and the applause was deservedly prolonged.

Gemma Peacocke’s White Horses is a kind of orchestral tone poem, inspired by an extraordinary event in 1937 when a pioneer female New Zealand aviator, Waud Farmar, fell to her death in the ocean. In the words of the composer – a New Zealander working in the United States – ‘Farmar leapt without warning from a bi-plane above Cook Strait…The pilot saw her hit the sea and disappear.’ The pilot said: ‘The sea was pretty rough, with white horses everywhere’. These words provide the clue for Peacocke’s music treatment with lots of ominous rumblings of percussion, and intermittent sharp accents from strings and wind instruments. The sonic range is impressive, from a poignant violin solo to thunderous orchestral climaxes.

German cellist Julian Steckel was at his best in the intense opening Largo of Shostakovich’s sinewy concerto dating from 1966, the year of the composer’s 60th birthday. Like its predecessor, the concerto was written for the great Mistislav Rostropovich. How fortunate the Russian composer was to have such sublime musicians as Rostropovich, David Oistrakh and Svatoslav Richter for whom to write his concerti! Unsurprisingly the score exploits to the full the virtuosic capacities of the instrument, demands which the soloist was clearly capable of meeting with ease and polish.

Tchaikovsky’s last symphony was first performed just nine days after his death in 1893, and it is hard to avoid inferring that he poured his heart and soul into it as a kind of final testament. The music is remarkably various, from the achingly lovely melody of the opening movement, through the delicacy and fire of the middle movements to the surging, sobbing melancholia of the final Adagio. The orchestra sounded magnificent throughout every nuance of sentiment wrung from the composer’s feelings. A cathartic experience altogether for the satisfied audience.

Categories
Reviews, News and Commentary

“Beyond Words” : music to promote unity and peace

John Daly-Peoples

John Psathas

Auckland Arts Festival

Beyond Words

New Zealand Symphony Orchestra

Auckland Town Hall

March 10

John Daly-Peoples

The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra joins with Aotearoa New Zealand’s Muslim communities and acclaimed international artists to present a unique concert experience at the  Auckland Arts Festival in March.

“Beyond Words” is a special collaboration to promote unity and peace through music and to honour the lives lost and changed forever in Ōtautahi Christchurch on 15 March 2019.

Conducted by Fawzi Haimor featuring powerful Moroccan vocalist OUM and Cypriot/Greek oud virtuoso Kyriakos Tapakis, the NZSO performs the New Zealand premieres of works from American Valerie Coleman, Iranian Reza Vali,  Estonian Arvo Pärt and the world premiere of a new work from renowned Aotearoa New Zealand composer John Psathas.

Psathas’ Ahlan wa Sahlan, composed in collaboration with OUM and Tapakis, uses the Arabic welcome to let people know they are in a place where they belong. Finding inspiration in a quote promoting peace, love and forgiveness from terror attack survivor Farid Ahmed’s memoir Husna’s Story, Psathas, OUM and Tapakis have fused together musical styles from Eastern and Western cultures in Ahlan wa Sahlan.

Psathas has established an international profile and receives regular commissions from organisations in New Zealand and overseas including  fanfares and other music at the  opening and closing ceremonies of the Athens Olympics.

This work has been created with guidance from The Central Iqra Trust and communities across Aotearoa New Zealand.

Vali combines Western orchestration with Persian style for the New Zealand premiere of Funèbre. Coleman’s Umoja, Swahili for ‘unity’, was the first work by a living African American woman premiered by the Philadelphia Orchestra. Pärt’s Silouan’s Song is a powerfully spiritual and meditative work.

Vocalist Abdelilah Rharrabti, vocalist and daf musician Esmail Fathi, and saz player Liam Oliver from Ōtautahi Christchurch’s Simurgh Music School, also join the Orchestra to perform traditional music of the Middle East.

“It is not often one has the opportunity to offer a message of solidarity, love, and compassion through one’s artistic work,” says Psathas.

“This is a rare gift from the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, and I am even more fortunate to be able to share this creative journey with two fellow artists: OUM and one of Greece’s most celebrated oud performers, Kyriakos Tapakis. Together we are creating a musical message of welcoming – Ahlan wa Sahlan – a greeting used to tell someone that they’re where they belong, that they’re a part of this place and they are welcome here. It’s a way of saying ‘You’re with your people’.”

Alongside the concerts are a series of free community engagement events in Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland in collaboration with Muslim communities and Unity Week, the official commemoration to be held from 15 March.

In each city there will be a community panel discussion with Beyond Words artists about the project. In Christchurch the events include a workshop by the Simurgh Music School, where the public can experience traditional instruments from the Middle East and Islamic world, a spoken word workshop and Share Kai Share Culture, run by InCommon and Mahia te Aroha, both founded in Christchurch in response to 15 March 2019.

In Auckland Town Hall a special calligraphy exhibition will feature works created by distinguished calligraphy artist Janna Ezat. In the Islamic world, Arabic calligraphy is both an art form and an expression of devotion, identity, and cultural heritage. The exhibition includes a powerful piece dedicated to Janna’s son Hussein Al-Umari, commemorating his bravery, and honouring his legacy in the aftermath of the tragic attack.

Beyond Word also performed in Wellington in association with the Aotearoa New Zealand Festival of the Arts (March 9) and at Christchurch (March 7).

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”

Categories
Reviews, News and Commentary

DakhaBrakha explores the rich past and the future of Ukraine

John Daly-Peoples

Auckland Arts Festival

DakhaBrakha

Auckland Town Hall

March 14

The Ukrainian performance group DakhaBrakha which is having one performance at the Auckland Arts Festival  is known for playing Ukrainian songs which display the traditional polyphonic harmonies of their traditional music. However, they give this music  a contemporary, transformation referencing hip-hop, punk and contemporary dance sounds. While using traditional Ukrainian instruments their performances also  derive from the indigenous instrumentation of Africa, the Middle East, India and Russia.

Their more recent music though has taken on a much more political edges as they try to counter the Russian propaganda which tries to obliterate  the culture, history, and language of Ukraine.

A recent New York Times review of the group references Maria Sonevytsky an ethnomusicologist who says,

“I think one of the most powerful things that DakhaBrakha can offer is that they show both that there is a very rich past in Ukraine, and they show this by bringing together a diversity of musical practices from different regions of Ukraine, from different ethnic groups within Ukraine,” Sonevytsky says. “And they fuse them together in a beautiful way that also suggests a future for Ukraine. It gives the lie to Putin’s propaganda that Ukraine has no culture or history of its own.”

“In fact,” Sonevytsky continues, “what we see in DakhaBrakha’s artistry is a deeply heterogeneous and complex history, the inheritance of multiple imperial experiences, the long history of attempts for Ukrainian sovereignty, and they blend together these kind of fractured pasts into a beautiful whole that is not simple, and it can’t be simply reduced down to a story of one nation that is occupied by one people, but instead suggests a vibrant, if imperfect, democracy.”

A US review enthused about the performance – “How to describe the sound?  A drum kit, djembe, and darbuka were all used together and individually.  A cello, a couple of accordions, and harmonica, along with the varieties of sounds made by the voice – words and sounds.

It was the voices that were so phenomenal – not just used for singing.  How do they get those sounds?  Often high, keeping sounds.  But, and this was my favourite – animal sounds.  Some were made with small tools, but what about the cats?  The owls?  And then, to close out the song, the piercing “CAW”!

Throughout the evening, as an accompaniment, an artistic slide show.  Animation, mesmerizing designs (reminiscent of folk embroidery), background photos of the war and its damage.“