Conducting from the keyboard

Eugene Albulescu conducts Lehigh Philharmonic. Photo / Supplied

Eugene Albulescu had been in New Zealand for just two years when he won the TVNZ/NZSO Young Musician of the Year in 1986. Fourteen years in his native Romania had given the teenage pianist the sort of training that was "the only redeeming feature of the communist era," Albulescu says.

"It was tough and the whole education system was instant death. If you didn't cross each threshold, you had to go to another school, or take up another field."

Tonight, Albulescu presides over Manukau Symphony Orchestra's Ludwig concert, conducting an evening of Beethoven, including the composer's First Piano Concerto.

As part of his professorial post at Pennsylvania's Lehigh University, Albulescu teaches piano and enjoys what he describes as "an endowed chair in orchestral studies which amounts to conducting."

Lehigh is the ideal environment, a place where talented musicians can "get their science or engineering degree and still play music," Albulescu explains. "We're more like a service department to a more general education as opposed to an institution which churns out unemployed musicians."

Flexibility and versatility would seem to be Lehigh virtues and this man is not fazed by conducting the orchestra from the keyboard in a Concerto he last performed in Auckland 22 years ago, with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra under Franz-Paul Decker.

"Works like this are rigged up to be do-able. The orchestral style is more direct and you don't need a middle man. Sometimes doing it like this forces you to interpret the music in slightly different ways. There are places where you can take more time and some where you can't because there isn't a conductor to keep things going."

As for conducting, "it's like playing a larger instrument ... the only drawback is that you aren't playing it - other people are. Whereas as a performer I have limitless Albulesco warns me not to expect the usual breast-beating Beethoven selection. The programme is constructed around the Eighth Symphony, "one of those gems that don't get played as much as they should. It was Beethoven's favourite and I like to play favourites."

"You can't help being happy when you hear it. It could be raining for three weeks solid but, listening to this, you can't help being on top of the world."

Albulescu has many reasons to be on top of the world on these visits to New Zealand, one being the usual pilgrimage to the Pancake Rocks at Punakaiki: "One of my favourite sonic experiences - when the water shoots up the blowhole you get these low frequencies." Another bonus has been arranging for Jenny McLeod to orchestrate her First Rock Sonata so he can play it with the French Chamber Orchestra in its 2010-11 season. McLeod wrote it for Albulescu back in the 80s. "It's horrendously difficult. Nevertheless it's a fun piece and very accessible."

This man has even been bitten by the cross-over bug, in his 2005 album Reverie. This is a disc which impressed the Jazz at Lincoln Center magazine enough to give its approval to Albulescu's "impeccable soulful fingers subjecting both classics and originals to the playful groove of jazz improvisation."

Reverie differs from Albulescu's other recordings in that it was created in solitude. "The sound engineer pressed the 'record' button, went home and there was enough hard drive for eight hours of music."

Ironically, his preference is for live recordings. "I don't have a good relationship with the microphone," he says. "I always have someone in the room. Even three or four people can help me forget about the microphone being there."

If MSO gets its usual loyal audience, Albulescu should have ample inspiration to do Ludwig proud.

PERFORMANCE

What: Ludwig, Manukau Symphony Orchestra
Where and when: Telstra Clear Pacific Events Centre, Manukau City, tonight at 7.30pm