A very special relationship

Ragna Schirmer loved the warmth of the Auckland audience.

Ragna Schirmer really enjoyed coming to this country two years ago, when she delivered a dazzling Gershwin Piano Concerto with Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra.

Looking back now, on the eve of boarding a plane for another visit, the German pianist vividly remembers the warmth of the Auckland audience.

"I was so surprised how open they were to hearing something new," she says, referring to the John Corigliano Symphony that made up the second half of that concert.

The question had to be asked: how do we compare to Germany? "It differs from town to town. There are some where you can do everything, but others where you can do nothing."

On Thursday, she plays not one, but two concertos, in the last of the APO's New Zealand Herald Premier Series. She admits that Mozart's popular C major Concerto K 467, of Elvira Madigan notoriety, was conductor Eckehard Stier's choice.

"I think you need the lightness of Mozart in between the two darker works on Thursday - Schnittke's Concerto for Piano and Strings and Shostakovich's Twelfth Symphony."

But there was also another, more devious, prompting for Stier's programming.

"He knows I have a jazz cadenza for the third movement, written for me by Karsten Gundermann, and it's very funny."

The Schnittke Concerto dates from 1978. Alexander Ivashkin, the Russian composer's biographer, describes Schnittke as one of the busiest composers in the world at that time, working all day at film scores in the Mosfilm studios then returning home to fulfil a stream of concert commissions. I mention Ivashkin's theory that Schnittke considered the concerto a very symbolic form, with the relationship of soloist and orchestra echoing that of an individual standing up to the great majority.

Schirmer is interested, but not totally convinced. She sees this work as reflecting Schnittke's feelings of homelessness.

"It's there in all the musical influences that you hear coming out in the score, from Russian Orthodox chants to Viennese waltzes," she explains. "There are Russian parts, German parts and Austrian parts. There are also so many composing styles being used - 12-tone, bitonal and polytonal as well as the quite conservative - it's very intense."

Schirmer is always happy to work with Eckehard Stier. Their professional relationship and friendship dates from 2000, when she played Chopin with his orchestra. "From the first rehearsal we were d'accord," she laughs, slipping in a French word where some might have used the Italian term simpatico. "There's perhaps no such thing as a perfect conductor, but Eckehard gets very close. If you saw a video of him with no sound, you'd still be able to work out the music from his face and body, the way he moves. When he raises his arm, I know what to do."

When our conversation strays to more general musical issues, there are surprises. She collects vinyl records, of cherished pianists such as Wilhelm Backhaus, Sviatoslav Richter and Glenn Gould. With the eccentric Gould she loves his absolute concentration. "All that detailing in his recording of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier. He didn't just stick to the rules, he did what be believed in, which is really something."

Schirmer chooses baroque music when I ask for favourites. "Bach is perfect in the way that he brings together vertical and horizontal lines ... Handel is so wonderfully alive. You're free to improvise and change things. His scores can be just a series of chords, a sketch for you to work with."

Evidence of Schirmer's flamboyant way with a Handel Prelude can be found on YouTube. Perhaps a sampling might turn up at encore time next Thursday.

What: Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra
Where and when: Auckland Town Hall, Thursday at 8pm