NZSO offers lush and sumptuous fare

By TARA WERNER

TOWN HALL, Auckland - Some of the music performed in the NZSO's concerts on Friday and Saturday nights had a decidedly morbid spin to it, and one would have been forgiven for thinking that such a preoccupation with death might have been rather emotionally turgid.

Far from it. Yes, the link between Ravel's Le Tombeau de Couperin and Strauss' Death and Transfiguration may have been sad memories and idealism - the first dedicated by Ravel to a friend killed in the First World War, and the second a moving musical portrayal of an artist dying in great pain, recalling his youth.

And there is a strong connection between Ravel's Pavane Pour Une Infante Defunte and Mahler's Kindertotenlieder, with their deep sense of mourning and understated anguish at the loss of a child.

But the scores had even more in common - they were written by masters of orchestration who knew intimately what an orchestra is capable of.

As if responding to the musical gauntlet laid down by these composers, the NZSO, conducted by Matthias Bamert, met the challenge head on and the results were impressive indeed.

The musicians seemed to revel in late romantic fare, highlighting a lovely sumptuousness, and even lushness in tone.

Having a consummate soloist such as Bernadette Cullen helped, since this Australian mezzo-soprano's natural dramatic flair, combined with a deeply rich lower register, made for some spine-tingling moments.

Take, for example, aspects of her interpretation of the Mahler on Saturday night, which transverses in music all the elements of the grieving process. The song Wenn dein Mutterlein tritt zur tur herein was particularly striking, while in the following Oft denk' ich she clearly portrayed a sense of resigned acceptance.

And she was just as good communicating the facets of romantic love with its gamut of bitter/sweet emotions in Hector Berlioz' Summer Nights.

The pinpoint accuracy with which she tackled the famous opening of L'Absence highlighted her vocal discipline as well.

Among all this virtuosic vocal and orchestral fare, Bizet's Symphony No 1 sounded a poor second indeed.

The music was quite derivative, and apart from the oboe melody in the adagio not particularly original, however hard the NZSO tried to inject an element of freshness.

Schubert's Unfinished Symphony has also experienced better interpretations. Maybe the musicians were feeling in an overly dramatic mood, since the score appeared to suffer from an inappropriate heavy-handedness.