Review: NZSO sensational

Members of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.

Peter and the Wolf is a great musical story for children. But like Grimm's Fairytales there's a scary side that can lead to bad dreams. Its composer Sergei Prokoviev initially explored dissonance to disturb his audience, and when his Second Symphony was received calmly he worried he was no longer a sensation.

Yet when Thursday's Baycourt concert by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra included Prokofiev's Sinfonia Concertante for cello and orchestra, it was the performers who were the sensation.

Cellist Alisa Weilerstein was spectacular in her reading of this difficult work. Difficulty was expected since Prokofiev received input from virtuoso compatriot Mstislav Rostropovich, but Miss Weilerstein's performance was spellbinding. High-speed passages had faultless intonation, and long expressive lines a touch of romanticism. Conductor Rafael Payare led Prokofiev's colourful orchestration in masterful support of an exhausting solo part. Her one slip of intonation at the top of her final flourish was easy to forgive.

Bad dreams and hallucinations were the lot of composer Robert Schumann. Equally active in literature and music, his interest in Lord Byron had led him to that poet's Manfred with its elements of the supernatural. Fascination with Byron himself, his sexual misdeeds and incest, were in strange contrast to Schumann's own life and marriage to Clara (for whom he wrote his wonderful Piano Concerto). Yet his Manfred overture with its thick woodwind scoring enabled NZSO to show off its secure intonation in the woodwind section.

Tchaikovsky's sombre Symphony No. 6 may be a warhorse, but it is a magnificent piece.

The 5/4 second movement is remarkably fluid, an endless delight. The third movement, energetic and full of surprises, would tax any conductor. Yet this is where Maestro Payare shone, giving clear cues to his players in a tour de force that the Tauranga audience recognised with an unscheduled round of applause. Only in the 4th movement did the sombre mood return.

This was a stunning concert, and might have been moreso had our stage enabled the full orchestra of the Mahler 1st that Auckland and Wellington heard on this tour. A proscenium arch stage that muffles the high brass is no place for these concerts, and we can only hope Tauranga will one day build a more suitable venue.

- Prof Barry Vercoe Mus D.