World-renowed pipa player Wu Man in concert with the APO under the baton of Tung-Chieh Chuang. Photo / Adrian Malloch
Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra's Reimagined could well be its most imaginative concert of the season, an exhilarating cultural mix that made for enthralling evening.
Stravinsky's Pulcinella may be a curiosity for those accustomed to the wild primitivism of his earlier Rite of Spring, as the composer stepped back in time and
worked his wiles on unsuspecting 18th century music. Here, it was delivered with the perfect style, grace and humour by young Taiwanese conductor Tung-Chieh Chuang.
A smaller orchestra put the focus on telling solo contributions, particularly from Andrew Beer and Camille Wells, while the tingle and crunch of dashing dissonances left us in no doubt that we were in 1919 not 1719.
The evening ended with a teenage symphonic debut. Shostakovich's First Symphony bristles with the energy of youth, from the strutting marches of its first movement to the sonic thunder of its finale.
It has none of the secret codes and agendas of the later symphonies, in which Shostakovich played cat-and-mouse games with Soviet authorities. However, Bede Hanley's passionate oboe solo through a sea of evasive harmonies in its heartrending Lento might have been a chilling portent of strife to come.
