Light turns to a darker shade of grim and a country's musical soul is transformed in a few hours. The Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra gives us two works by Shostakovich, less than a decade apart in composition date, yet the journey is a nation-shattering one.
The First Piano Concerto was written
when the composer still had the enfant terrible in him and its satire is pungent and outrageous. Conductor Arvo Volmer ensures that the piece takes off like an uncoiled spring, after a three-bar whip from soloists and orchestra.
Pianist Robert Edward Thies soon settles into his constructivist boogie bass. Trumpeter Victor Silverstone adds the spices of irony with banal fanfares and cheesy cadences, as well as waxing lyrically in the second movement.
Volmer has the strings brood in the first movement and pluck like a manic balalaika orchestra in the last few pages; elsewhere, there are a few unsanctioned astringencies.
After interval we stride into the mighty Leningrad Symphony. The strings show a new tenacity which they sustain for the next 75 minutes.
The work speaks out, freed from the cluttering tracts of those embarrassed by fervour. When strings introduce the celebrated march over obsessive side-drum, it steals upon us. Clear, perfectly turned woodwind line up, creating an inexorable arc of power. Volmer and his musicians have achieved their first victory.
The second movement deals in passion and brutality, a Mahlerian no-man's land where heartless scherzo battles funeral cortege.
By the Finale there's no holding back the mammoth brass section; they punch back at the often cocky woodwind, smothering attempts at dialogue. The audience reception is tumultuous. One of the finest hours for both composer and orchestra.
