Concert review: Stephen De Pledge at Te Uru, Titirangi

Stephen De Pledge plays 50 years of our music on Parekowhai work of art.

The artworks of Michael Parekowhai grace many city venues, but their beauties and ironies are silent. Not so at Te Uru, where his carved Steinway is the central musical focus of the gallery's Black Rainbow festival.

The instrument's historical resonances, reflected in its title, He Korero Purakau mo Te Awanui o Te Motu (The Story of a New Zealand River), made potent connections during Stephen De Pledge's recital on Wednesday night of almost 50 years of our piano music. De Pledge explained personal connections too, from his own student performances to his recent commissioning of scores.

Farquhar's 1969 And One Makes Ten was delivered with the cool authority that such sinewy writing needs; and later on the flickerings and flutterings of Lyell Cresswell's Mezzotinto were given just the right light and lightness. Christopher Blake's Two Score and Two and Anthony Ritchie's Touched laid out fuller canvases. De Pledge clearly enjoyed the dramatic rhetoric of Blake, with powerful chordal writing and strands of mysterious melody.

The 2013 Ritchie work, despite an incisive performance, did not sustain tone and tension so well, thanks to an unconvincing Allegretto section.

Samuel Holloway's Grand Piano was the first new commission. De Pledge turned sonic architect for this hypnotic piece, constructing the illusion of a rising tower of sound, through ethereal, wide-spaced textures.

Dylan Lardelli aimed, in Between, Apart, to show "the transformation of piano from instrument to untouchable object". A lofty goal, although De Pledge did lay out a veritable paintbox of coloristic effects, through to the final trailing duet of piano and electronic keyboard.

Alexandra Hay's Parlor Game was a piece of performance art, its jabs and stabs of piano pitted against cruisy, woozy sine tones, prompted by the shuffle of cards. It was short, fun and offered assurance that the spirit of John Cage is as engaging and inspirational as ever.

There was also a moment of reflection mid-concert, remembering composer Gerard Crotty who died in 1988 aged just 34.

Cellist Katherine Hebley unfolded the elegy and anger of Commemoration, Eve de Castro-Robinson's 1988 tribute.

Concert review
What: Stephen De Pledge
Where: Te Uru, Titirangi.