Maestro Giordano Bellincampi leads Auckland Philharmonia at Auckland Town Hall. Photo / Sav Schulman
Maestro Giordano Bellincampi leads Auckland Philharmonia at Auckland Town Hall. Photo / Sav Schulman
THE FACTS
Maria Grenfell’s Hinemoa effectively launched Auckland Philharmonia’s Mendelssohn & Dvorak concert, conducted by Giordano Bellincampi.
Andrea Lam’s performance of Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto No 1 was riveting, showcasing her fearless bravura.
Dvorak’s Symphony, following a 40-minute interval, was delivered with charm and rustic energy.
Maria Grenfell’s Hinemoa proved a highly effective launch for the Auckland Philharmonia’s Mendelssohn & Dvorak concert.
The fairly conservative style of this Hobart-based New Zealand composer worked well amongst solid 19th-century fare.
Her atmospheric opening, with every detail gracefully observed, built to lush orchestral efflorescences, delivered with gustounder maestro Giordano Bellincampi.
Hinemoawas premiered by Queensland Symphony Orchestra in 2006 as part of a concert titled Magical Fairytales;on this night, 20 years later, this was its first concert performance in the country of its inspiration.
Mendelssohn’s piano concertos have been rather overshadowed by those of Liszt, Chopin and Schumann, and Andrea Lam’s riveting account of his Piano Concerto No 1made one realise why.
Pianist Andrea Lam delivered a riveting account of Mendelssohn's Piano Concerto. Photo / Lisa-Marie Mazzucco
When Ingrid Fliter and the Auckland Philharmonia performed this work in 2018, I suggested it was foolish to seek out intense emotions in such happy and sometimes frivolous music – better by far to relax and enjoy the glitter and sparkle of precipitous passage work.
Australian Lam was impressively fearless here. Her unstinting bravura, coupled with Bellincampi’s dramatic flair, had the opening Molto Allegro con fuocogo almost beyond its composer’s directive.
In the Andante,I was reminded of an exquisite Mozart concerto Lam gave us in 2024 and here, her buoyant passagework almost uncovered emotional depths that are usually beyond Mendelssohn’s reach.
Lam’s soulful and beautifully nuanced Chopin encore made obvious the expressive gap between Mendelssohn and his fellow romantics.
A medical emergency in the hall would extend the interval by almost 40 minutes, a wait well rewarded by Dvorak’s irrepressibly sunny G major Symphony.
One sensed a special anticipation in Dvorak’s cool, hushed opening until, in due course, we were charmed by the chirpy flute theme that defines the first movement.
Throughout, Bellincampi and his musicians were bent on enjoyment and passing that happy state on to us; the lilt of the third movement was indeed an invitation to the waltz, the finale had generous lashings of blistering rusticity.
On Saturday, the Auckland Philharmonia is accompanying US soprano Julia Bullock, who is in town for Auckland Arts Festival’s production of Bluebeard’s Castle.Bullock and livewire conductor Christian Reif offer songs by Gershwin, Bernstein and Margaret Bonds, the evening rounded off with an orchestral bonus of Kurt Weill’s rarely heard Symphony No 2.
