Classical Review: APO's Inspired by Folksong

Conductor Ilyich Rivas.

Winter, for city concertgoers, is when Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra traditionally mounts its Splendour series; three evenings of music, inventively cast around a central theme (last year World War I was remembered).

Thursday's Inspired by Folksong was the first of 2015's new Sources of Inspiration series and, under the energetic baton of 22-year-old Venezuelan Ilyich Rivas, the orchestra presented what might be described as a return to roots.

Enescu's First Romanian Rhapsody may sound like a string of gypsy tunes. However, its composer saw poignancy in jaunty rhythms that provided peasants with companionship and support in the solitude of the mountains and fields. This came across tonight, as woodwind made the most of Enescu's characterful lines, while Rivas brought out a real folkish spontaneity from the whole orchestra.

Berio's Folk Songs took us around the world in eleven vividly scored melodies with Australian mezzo Fiona Campbell putting her own stamp on a work written for, and deeply identified with, the late Cathy Berberian.

Even if the boom and crash of percussion submerged some of the pleas of her Sicilian fisherwife, Campbell created a succession of tellingly characterized moods from wide-eyed rapture to a fiery Ballo delivered with machine-gun precision.

One sensed immense orchestral enjoyment, too, especially in Berio's ingenious mix of colours and the way that bolder, more modernist touches infiltrated codas and sidelines.
Bartok's 1923 Dance Suite may have had a hundred German performances in one year at the time, but it is rare fare for us. Again, Rivas aimed for, and achieved, immediacy; actual folksongs may not have been quoted, but there was the impression of tales being told.

In a performance of much memorable detail, one that lingers is the translucent textures from two desks of the first violins.

Manuel de Falla's The Three-Cornered Hat brings with it a familiar narrative from the ballet stage; tonight, its characters and setting took on a sultry, Hispanic glow. If its short launch with raw brass and timpani evoked parallels with the music of Janacek, it only served to show what a rich storehouse of folksong-inspired music there is to explore.