Artists
Location
Auckland Town Hall, Auckland NZ
Date
November 8, 2019Pictures
Comments
added by
terrylev
This concert may have taken its title from Schubert's Great C major Symphony, but we didn't have to wait until after the interval to experience monumental music-making from the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra under Edo de Waart.
First up was American violinist Jennifer Koh, taking us, with brilliance and charm, into the here and now of the contemporary — playing Esa-Pekka Salonen's 2009 Violin Concerto.
This Finnish composer's day job as a top-rung conductor comes through in the ingenuity of his orchestration, ably transformed here into both luminescent backdrop and gladiatorial arena for the dauntless Koh. A log drum, one of the work's diverse hues, made an unexpected Pacific connection.
Salonen's opening movement featured much zooming, in both his own programme notes — which deserve to have been printed in full — and Koh's cadenza-like virtuosity. The central movements, both titled Pulse, lulled us at first over heartbeat timpani and then unleashed a welter of fury described by its composer as urban, bizarre and Californian.
The concerto's finale, with the bittersweet title of Adieu, inspired the ever-persuasive Koh to exquisite lyricism; often of gossamer-like delicacy, but not afraid to bloom in a triple forte climax.
Koh's encore was a Bach sarabande which unfolded with the naturalness of an improvisation, complete with one inadvertent pizzicato.
After interval maestro de Waart was extremely judicious in observing repeats with Schubert's Great Symphony, meaning that the score's "heavenly length", as fellow composer Schumann later praised it, ran at just over 52 minutes.
This work is a curiosity with its shameless repetitions, brutal alternations of orchestral colours and a slow movement which passes over Adagio profundity for a perky, toe-tapping march.
Yet these factors that disturbed so many in the past now, in 2019, when delivered with the panache we heard, have a defiance and a boldness to them that seem very modern; making Schubert, in his way, just as confrontational and provocative as Salonen in one of the finest concerts of the season.
First up was American violinist Jennifer Koh, taking us, with brilliance and charm, into the here and now of the contemporary — playing Esa-Pekka Salonen's 2009 Violin Concerto.
This Finnish composer's day job as a top-rung conductor comes through in the ingenuity of his orchestration, ably transformed here into both luminescent backdrop and gladiatorial arena for the dauntless Koh. A log drum, one of the work's diverse hues, made an unexpected Pacific connection.
Salonen's opening movement featured much zooming, in both his own programme notes — which deserve to have been printed in full — and Koh's cadenza-like virtuosity. The central movements, both titled Pulse, lulled us at first over heartbeat timpani and then unleashed a welter of fury described by its composer as urban, bizarre and Californian.
The concerto's finale, with the bittersweet title of Adieu, inspired the ever-persuasive Koh to exquisite lyricism; often of gossamer-like delicacy, but not afraid to bloom in a triple forte climax.
Koh's encore was a Bach sarabande which unfolded with the naturalness of an improvisation, complete with one inadvertent pizzicato.
After interval maestro de Waart was extremely judicious in observing repeats with Schubert's Great Symphony, meaning that the score's "heavenly length", as fellow composer Schumann later praised it, ran at just over 52 minutes.
This work is a curiosity with its shameless repetitions, brutal alternations of orchestral colours and a slow movement which passes over Adagio profundity for a perky, toe-tapping march.
Yet these factors that disturbed so many in the past now, in 2019, when delivered with the panache we heard, have a defiance and a boldness to them that seem very modern; making Schubert, in his way, just as confrontational and provocative as Salonen in one of the finest concerts of the season.
added by
terrylev
Jennifer Koh Violin
Esa-Pekka Salonen Violin Concerto
Schubert Symphony No. 9 In C major, D. 944 The Great
The NZSO Music Director Edo de Waart conducts this exciting concert which features a contemporary violin concerto and Schubert’s magnificent Symphony, The Great.
Finnish composer Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Violin Concerto has four contrasting movements. “When I had written the very last chord of the piece,” explains the composer, “I felt confused: why does the last chord – and only that – sound completely different from all other harmony of the piece? … Now I believe I have the answer. That chord is a beginning of something new.” American violinist Jennifer Koh has premiered more than 70 works specially written for her. She has also been a top prize winner at Moscow’s International Tchaikovsky Competition.
Schubert’s Symphony No. 9 The Great was originally numbered the 7th, causing considerable confusion. It is the composer’s last completed symphony and he never heard it performed. It’s first public performance was 11 years after Schubert’s death. As one would expect with Schubert, who wrote over 600 songs, it is full of beautiful melodies. However, it is also an ambitious and profound work, with complex thematic development, showing the influence of Beethoven – Schubert’s hero.