Review: New Zealand Symphony Orchestra

Auckland Town Hall

Review: Heath Lees

This year's routine of having the NZSO in town for two concerts in quick succession has worked well. Short, sharp exposure allows for more focused marketing, and the $15 "rush" tickets have attracted a younger audience that is heartening to see and fun to be with.

Another advantage lies in being able to compare the same performer in different repertoire at close quarters. In the case of pianist Konstantin Lifschitz, this yielded enormous satisfaction since his approach to the pair of works he had brought with him was so different yet so enjoyable.

Friday's Beethoven concerto - the C minor, number three - was crisp and delicate, with Lifschitz producing a springy, intimate tone from the Steinway Grand that often gave the impression of a fortepiano, but took on a ravishing, pearly quality in the cantabile moments. All the showy parts were properly restricted to cadenzas, and the reflective tempo for the finale gave elegance and poise to a movement that is usually powered through regardless.

In Saturday's programme, the concerto was again in C minor, but by a Romantic Rachmaninov this time. Lifschitz' playing seemed to have been completely re-cast, the buoyant Beethoven sound giving way to a darker, more languorous tone that sang clearly on top, but paid perfect attention to the rippling details underneath. Eager not to rush the music, Lifschitz became slow in the middle movement, but Matthias Bamert's fluid yet precise conducting kept everything effortlessly together, and drew remarkable playing from the orchestra's soloists.

Solo contributions were also high on the list in Prokofief's scintillating Romeo and Juliet ballet music, which made a marvellous close to Friday's concert, with the score coming so magisterially alive that you wondered if the work might have better fitted the Saturday theme of "Sounding the Century." But two fine works were already holding place there - Debussy's La Mer and Roussel's Third Symphony, which is hardly ever played in this country.

The Debussy piece sounded a little tired and disorientated, perhaps a result of being prefaced by the "Music 2000" entry from Michael Norris, whose Nightdances sacrificed the sense of significant profile on the altar of slowly changing colours. Inevitably, the result was interesting but difficult to sustain.

In contrast, Roussel's symphony has almost too much happening in a short time. Street scenes, carnivals, seascape music and film-score sounds are constantly shaken and stirred into a brilliant orchestral mixture that's held together by a purposeful musical style. Worldwide, Bamert is probably the best conductor of this symphony today. It was no surprise that the orchestra rose to the occasion.