Classical review: APO – An Evening with Andreas Ottensamer

Austrian clarinetist Andreas Ottensamer. Photo / Supplied via Facebook

Over the years, Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra has featured several fine soloists from the principal ranks of the Berlin Philharmonic, but none with the cool charm of clarinet maestro Andreas Ottensamer.

Weber's F minor concerto might have been written to showcase this man's talent for lithe, effortless virtuosity (particularly in a brilliant Baermann cadenza). Yet he also dealt out the sweetest of laments, when he first emerged from a blustering orchestral tutti, splendidly energised by conductor Carlos Miguel Prieto.

Written in 1811, with Haydn only two years in his grave, this piece is an early romantic bloom. We hear hints of Weber's Faustian opera, Der Freischutz, still a decade away; in the serenity of its Adagio, Ottensamer blended with a trio of euphonious horns to suggest that sylvan magic might well be afoot.

An encore took us to the lighter side, with Ottensamer swinging through a Gershwin prelude, the razzamatazz of its Stephen Koncz arrangement giving the orchestra a toe-tapping big-band workout.

The evening opened in America with Aaron Copland's Quiet City. Prieto sculpted open-air string textures to form a spellbinding backdrop for Martin Lee's on-stage cor anglais and Huw Dann's trumpet, coming down from the dramatic isolation of the circle.

After interval, Prieto revealed his true mettle with a galvanic rendition of Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony.

Written in 1937 and described by its composer as "an artist's response to just criticism," its broad tunes and accessible harmonic palette are laced with sometimes bitter irony. Conductor and players engaged thrillingly with the dynamic struggles of its mighty first movement while, in the uproarious dance of the second, Andrew Beer's scrumptiously over-the-top glissandi gave out just the right nudge and wink to knowing ears. Before its storming finale set our pulses racing, the magnificent heart of the symphony, its 14-minute Largo, had the APO strings throbbing with almost organ-like sonorities.

Classical review

What: Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra – An Evening with Andreas Ottensamer
Where: Auckland Town Hall
Reviewed by: William Dart