Beethoven's Time

By TARA WERNER

CONCERT CHAMBER and TOWN HALL - When Beethoven made his last appearance as a concert soloist with his Choral Fantasia on a freezing December night in 1808, it was only one of many works. Others included the fourth piano concerto, parts of the Mass in C, the concert aria Ah, Perfido!, not to mention both the fifth and sixth symphonies.

The Viennese public sat in the bitter cold, from 6.30 pm till 10.30, and even the composer's most loyal supporters later noted that "you can easily have too much of a good thing".

Fortunately, the finale of the International Music Festival, a classical banquet, did not elicit quite the same reaction, even though its length with meal-breaks was much the same as the composer's mammoth premiere.

Boredom was kept at bay by the variety of fare chosen for the three mini-concerts, featuring music by Beethoven and his contemporaries.

And the concert, conducted by Uwe Grodd, was hallmarked by the quality of the visiting overseas soloists.

There was an impassioned and evenly matched account of Beethoven's Triple Concerto by violinist Gabor Sipos, cellist Maria Kliegel and pianist Nina Tichman, accompanied by the Auckland Philharmonia.

However, the other large-scale work, the Choral Fantasia, did not show pianist Matteo Napoli at his technical best, with the performance affected at times by a lack of coordination between the different musical forces, although the festival choir and soloists were notable for their clarity.

The two soprano soloists, Maria Keohane and Deborah Wai Kapohe, sang with mixed results.

Kraus' tuneful cantata Den frid ett menlost hjuter njuter had a forceful proponent in Keohane, but Wai Kapohe's performance of Beethoven's Ah, Perfido! was beyond her, given her often-suspect intonation.

Meanwhile, the orchestra presented a workmanlike performance of Rossini's Barber of Seville Overture and the dramatic Olympie Overture by Kraus.

An elegant performance by the Auer Quartet turned out to be the hidden gem of the evening - a quartet by the Bohemian composer Franz Richter.

The Auer Quartet, with the addition of cellist Maria Kliegel, were also the mainstay of the chamber music concert on Wednesday night, featuring Boccherini's rarely performed Stabat Mater. Soprano Maria Keohane's expressiveness and purity of tone were evident.

The two works highlighting the flute, Kuhlau's Introduction and Variations on a theme by Weber, and Weber's own Trio in G minor were pleasant enough, and animatedly played by Uwe Grodd and Matteo Napoli, and Grodd, Napoli and Kliegel respectively.

But the essentially salon nature of the music left a longing for something a bit more substantial on the programme.