William Dart review: Auckland Philharmonia’s Enigma concert relives rich musical memories

How could one not be swept away by the sheer exuberance and joie de vivre of these musicians? Photo / Sav Schulman

There was no headlining soloist in Auckland Philharmonia’s Enigma concert on Thursday night – and nor was one needed, with James MacMillan’s new Concerto for Orchestra on the bill.

Thanks to the AP’s participation in commissioning this piece, we had the privilege and downright thrill of hearing this outstanding work just months after its London Symphony Orchestra premiere.

The Scottish composer has stirred together his many musical memories and influences with skill and subtlety. The work’s title, Ghosts, comes from a magical, celesta-driven reminiscence of Beethoven’s Ghost Trio, but there is so much more to be discovered, woven through its 94 pages.

How could one not be swept away by the sheer exuberance and joie de vivre of these musicians, fearlessly adventuring in what the composer himself describes as a virtuosic vehicle?

Galvanic blasts of energy that might have come from Bernstein’s West Side Story contrasted with finely drawn duets. Glorious suffusions of colour go from mysterious shudders of brass and driving, occasionally blistering percussion to exquisite solo strings recalling the pastoral Vaughan Williams.

Steffens opened Thursday night’s concert with the rustic jolliness of Grieg’s Norwegian Dances. Photo / Sav Schulman

Conductor Karl-Heinz Steffens was a masterly MC for our 25-minute journey, surely enjoying MacMillan’s rich and all-embracing musical world.

Steffens, who just last May inspired the AP to a magisterial Bruckner Ninth Symphony, opened Thursday night’s concert with the rustic jolliness of Grieg’s Norwegian Dances, but not without a welcome touch of almost coquettish rubato in the second.

After interval, Elgar’s Enigma Variations, which famously brought English music back into the European mainstream after a long Victorian hibernation, was a magnificent achievement.

Steffens’ admirable characterisation of Elgar’s 14 variations revealed a maestro of rare perceptiveness.

While the popular Nimrod variation glowed with stalwart yet serene confidence, elsewhere Steffens was not afraid to lash out with some fury and, in Variation 11, one could almost hear Elgar’s bold shifts of texture looking forward to, of all people, Stravinsky. There were also many moments of truly Elgarian evanescence, some made all the more so by Robert Ashworth’s exquisite solo viola.