Review: Manawatū Sinfonia Autumn Concert pulls off challenging repertoire

Manawatū Sinfonia viola player Jamie Oemcke.

Manawatū Sinfonia Autumn Concert
Conducted by Peter van Drimmelen
Speirs Centre
Sunday, May 9
Reviewed by Roger Buchanan

One thing you have to say about our Manawatū Sinfonia: they don't shy away from challenging repertoire. This was evident in their autumn concert, which featured no fewer than five very different works.

The first was the popular overture to a relatively obscure opera, Donna Diana (1894), by French composer Emil von Reznicek. Conductor Peter van Drimmelen extracted the drama and excitement from the music and his musicians and, although there was a rousing opening to the concert, at times the rhythmic unity was a little loose.

The following work, George Butterworth's short idyll The Banks of Green Willow (1913), based on an English folk tune of the same name, is planted firmly in the English pastoral tradition. Expansive and noble, Butterworth emanates from a proud era in English music represented by Elgar and Vaughan Williams and one can discern elements of those masters in this work.

Next was something I had been looking forward to. The late Clace Schwabe was a Manawatū musician and music teacher of many decades. I was fortunate enough to work with Clace for about 15 years when she was an itinerant teacher in high schools. A gifted musician, she could play and teach a plethora of instruments, and with her amazing brain a conversation with her was always rewarding.

Her retirement left a huge hole in the musical life of our schools and community. As a tribute to the decades of service Clace gave to the sinfonia, the third offering was her own work, Tutaki (2006), inspired by the changes that occur in people upon meeting, whether natural phenomena and wildlife or human encounters.

Thirty-odd orchestral allusions to various meetings are structurally linked by a viola soloist, played here by Jamie Oemcke. His confident style and rich, sonorous tone provided a beautiful commentary through the piece. My only regret is that Clace's compositional output was small - we would be much the richer for more work like this.

To complete the first half of the concert, we heard Chaminade's ubiquitous Flute Concertino in D major (1902) with soloist Emma Minchin. A relative newcomer to Palmerston North, Minchin left the audience in no doubt about her formidable talent. Her rendition was powerful and articulate with a technical agility and brilliance of tone that made this a highlight of the afternoon.

She followed with an encore penned by her former teacher, flute professor Ian Clarke of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, entitled The Great Train Race. This piece experiments with alternative avant-garde techniques and sounds from the instrument and Minchin's breathtaking performance was deservedly received with rapturous applause.

The second half was devoted to Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 1, his 13th work in this genre.

If this sounds confusing, his first 12 were works for only strings, the 13th being the first to incorporate brass and woodwind. Composed when he was only 15, the work certainly gave the impression of youthful exuberance and the orchestra delivered a punchy performance culminating in a finale. This gave timpanist Tim Jones the encouragement he doesn't need to bring the afternoon to a rousing conclusion.