Auckland Philharmonia
Town Hall
Review: Tara Werner
Mention Beethoven and people come to concerts in droves. That definitely proved to be the case last Friday night, when the Auckland Philharmonia presented the first programme of its Beethoven and the Farr Future series.
It made a refreshing change to have a break with
tradition when the symphony was played first, followed by an overture and then finally a piano concerto.
All three works written by Beethoven gave plenty of opportunity for stylistic comparison.
The Symphony No 6 (Pastoral), for instance, could not be more different from the Piano Concerto No 5 (Emperor), even though they were written within a couple of years of each other.
One is a deeply personal and joyful response to nature that is essentially contemplative; the other a highly forceful and dramatic piece that must have shocked the audiences of the time by its massive opening chords for piano.
Conductor Christopher Bell had no hesitation in tackling the Sixth with breathless speed. Possibly he has taken the tempo markings of the English conductor Roger Norrington too much to heart, since all five movements were performed in a bull-at-a-gate fashion.
It meant that many of the passages sounded as if they had no room to breathe, especially the second movement, By the Brookside. Ironically given its extra-fast tempo, the thunderstorm in the fourth movement came out rather mannered and polite; definitely more of a mild squall than a wild storm.
The same process occurred in the piano concerto when Bell attempted to tackle it with unnecessary haste.
Luckily, he meet his match in Michael Houstoun, who slowed the tempi down into manageable speeds. The adagio un poco mosso was played just that -a fraction faster than a slow pace, and the music blossomed accordingly.
And while the Fidelio overture provided a necessary balance to the programme, this was also belted out in an overly "call to action" manner.
