Hungarian view of Russian realism

Michael Halasz

Michael Halasz does not remember much of his first New Zealand visit in 1995, when he flew here to conduct the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra for a Naxos recording date.

"It was just going back and forth to the recording studio and a little bit of hard work," the Hungarian says with a worldweary lilt.

Ten years later he is back, leading the players through Dvorak, Saint-Saens, Mozart, Beethoven and Shostakovich, with Croatian cellist Monika Leskovar.

After just one rehearsal, he is bubbling with enthusiasm. "They are great, they are really good."

With Uzbekistan in crisis, the 67-year-old maestro recalls being caught up in the Hungarian Uprising of 1956, "a protest march for Polish workers in Gdansk that turned into this little revolution".

He escaped to Vienna, playing first bassoon in the Philharmonia Hungarica under conductors such as Dorati and Kubelik. But his greatest inspiration for taking up the baton was Karajan.

"The way Karajan conducted was totally different. He used both hands, simply showing clearly what he wanted, creating a tremendous sound and a real legato."

Halasz offers assessments of other greats, from Knappertsbusch to Bernstein, but becomes cagey when I ask him about any special relationship between conductor and orchestra.

"It's just work," he says. "It's like being a doctor. I see what the orchestra needs and what I can do to help."

He also resists being drawn out on some of this weekend's music - until it comes to Shostakovich's Second Cello Concerto. The problem turns out to be that the Russian composer hogged Hungarian concert programmes in the 1950s while Hungarian Bartok was ignored because his music was "too cosmopolitan".

"I could never forgive Shostakovich," says Halasz. "Sometimes I listen to his music and I can hear why. I'm not really fond of it. These Russians were all earning their money in Eastern Europe because Hungarian composers couldn't be forced to write in a realist style. Kodaly never did anything he didn't want to."

He savages Shostakovich's Cheryomushki, which is playing in Vienna as we speak. "My daughter is singing in it, but it's cheap music, very bad."

For Halasz it commits the cardinal sin for an operetta - "there are simply not enough melodies".

Vienna is Halasz' hometown, where he is resident conductor of the Vienna State Opera, although he is quick to say that touring with the NZSO is "refreshing, after working with singers and dancers, to only have an orchestra".

Nevertheless, some New Zealanders have tasted Halasz' operatic skills through Naxos recordings of works such as Don Giovanni, Fidelio and The Marriage of Figaro.

Halasz feels his stage experience is the secret of his success on disc. "If you have done it on stage then you know that the main thing is who is singing in which mike, and when. It's not a concert."

Vienna is still the city of dreams when it comes to funding. "We have only one big opera-house and there are no money problems."

But Halasz bewails the draconian strictures Germany is experiencing. And he laments the fact that personalities are disappearing, saying they are what made a scene so rich. "Do we really want a recording in which everything is correct with no individuality, with a singer whose voice you don't even recognise?"

Perhaps he is slyly previewing Auckland's Saturday concert when Beethoven's Seventh Symphony comes up. Can we expect some fierce sabre slashes of baton? "It doesn't hurt to put some personality into it," is Halasz' assessment, "although there is the danger if you overdo it there is too much personality and not enough Beethoven."

We laugh over Sabato's "huge accelerando in the Brahms Fourth - not written, but boy it's so exciting" and the maestro comes up with the ultimate justification. "We always have to discover things between the lines."

Performance

* What: New Zealand Symphony Orchestra
* Where and when: Founders Theatre, Hamilton, Thursday 8pm, Auckland Town Hall, Friday 6.30pm, Saturday 8pm