KEY POINTS:
REVIEW
Who: Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra with pianist Markus Groh
Where: Auckland Town Hall, Auckland Museum
Reviewer: William Dart
Ukrainian conductor Kirill Karabits was once more the dynamo maestro for the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra's Rogue and Rhapsody concert on Thursday.
Kodaly's Hary Janos Suite was a slavic roustabout from its opening orchestral sneeze to its final, vehement thump of bass drum. When poetry was called for, Robert Ashworth's viola waxed eloquently in the third movement; the exotic was provided, a few bars on, by Rebecca Lagos' lilting cimbalon.
German pianist Markus Groh combined fire and aforethought in Liszt's First Concerto. The work set off at a maestoso strut and then melted into a dream-filled quasi adagio, introduced by delicious swooping strings. After Groh had spun his nocturnal rhapsody and collaborated with the orchestra in an impetuous Allegretto vivace, the Finale was a brazen blast.
After interval, Liszt's Totentanz was a primal surge, with much sweeping up and down the ivories. Groh and Karabits pooled their energies to give us a vision of Hell terrifying enough to make the most recalcitrant sinner reform on the spot.
The Karelia Suite brought us home via Finland - home because Sibelius' music has been indelibly associated with our country since it stood in for our own composers on the 1970 Expo documentary, This Is New Zealand.
The final Alla Marcia breezed away heartily but, in doing so, revealed its alarming triteness.
Two nights later, Groh was the third guest in the Museum's Fazioli International Piano Recitals series.
Brahms was the composer of the evening, featuring his final four sets of shorter pieces, written in the last decade of his life.
From the first Intermezzo of Opus 117, with Groh's effective use of both pedals through to the articulation of the third, this pianist's Brahmsian credentials were never in doubt.
After interval the Opus 118 offered Brahms' most daring inspirations, especially in the final intermezzo, which Groh delivered as if it were Teutonic Debussy. When an audience member managed to crackle a sweet wrapper for most of the second intermezzo, the pianist responded by replaying the piece, molto passionato.
