Review: Auckland Philharmonia at Auckland Town Hall - William Dart

Auckland Philharmonia’s Bach & Bruckner concert set off with a rare and, for some, guilt-inducing pleasure - Johann Sebastian Bach rendered on a Steinway grand. Photo / James Bort

Auckland Philharmonia’s Bach & Bruckner concert set off with a rare and, for some, guilt-inducing pleasure - Johann Sebastian Bach rendered on a Steinway grand.

David Fray, surrounded by a smallish string ensemble, was the persuasive pianist in two Bach concertos originally written for harpsichord. Fast movements were very much driven by the impulsive soloist, navigating gnarly contrapuntal thickets with unerring flair.

Fray has spoken of enjoying the lyrical, expressive side of Bach’s music, and we heard this in the slow movements, his shapely, nuanced lines delicately shaded by conductor Karl-Heinz Steffens and his string players.

Conductor Karl-Heinz Steffens. Photo / Stefan Wildhirt

Might some purists have preferred the pianist’s Schubert encore played on a more modest keyboard? Perhaps. Yet the Steinway allowed for a much wider tonal range, as the unruffled calm was dramatically darkened by snarling trills and stabs of dissonance.

I have never heard Bruckner earning wolf whistles from an audience, but on Thursday night they indicated the sheer elation after the AP’s noble account of the Austrian’s Symphony No. 9 in D minor.

How fortunate we were to have maestro Steffens - a true Brucknerian who will soon record this same work with his own Norrkoping Symphony Orchestra for the BIS label.

From the very beginning of Bruckner’s vast first movement, Steffens grasped the immense musical architecture of the piece; crisp woodwind, massive brass outbursts, and songful strings were skilfully and subtly woven together.

There was a distinctly impish maliciousness to the scherzo, with timpanist Steven Logan spectacularly underpinning some thunderous unisons.

Bruckner spent two years trying to write a final movement before he died in 1896, but to no avail. And so, it ends with a lengthy adagio, the ultimate testament to the spiritual faith that inspired this symphony.

On Thursday night, Steffens coaxed his orchestra to submit totally to Bruckner’s sumptuous post-Wagnerian harmonies and colour palette, creating a heartrending finale - not only for the symphony, but also for its composer and a world about to experience the turmoil of a new century.

The Details

What: Auckland Philharmonia

Where: Auckland Town Hall

When: Thursday, May 2