What: Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra
Where: Auckland Town Hall
When: Thursday June 22nd
Reviewer: William Dart
The box office benefits of Beethoven at the first of Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra's Splendour of Vienna concerts were sorely missed at Imperial Elegance, the second instalment of the series.
Was Anton Webern the cause, one wondered? Yet the dreaded dodecaphonist was represented by two pieces featuring nothing more startling than what you might find in Richard Strauss or Mahler on their best behaviour.
The opening Ricercare from Bach's Musical Offering had Webern re-visioning Bach's great six-voice fugue as if through a prism, breaking up melodies and sharing them around solo instruments.
With tantalizing timbral fluctuations and the occasional give-and-take in tempo, deftly judged by conductor Eckehard Stier, the austere original was transfigured into the very essence of the late romantic spirit.
Webern's Langsamer Satz was delivered at a pace where it assumed the mantle of a tragic Mahler slow movement. The APO strings showed their mettle in stirring triple forte unisons and rich, vibrant ensemble, although portamenti and quirky pizzicato passages did always not come off as convincingly as they can in the original string quartet version.
Richard Strauss's transcendental Oboe Concerto proved a bittersweet pleasure, bidding farewell to soloist Bede Hanley who leaves the orchestra in September to join with the Winnipeg Symphony.
Strauss's rapturous oboe line seems set to flow forever and, with Hanley's gorgeous tone and buoyant phrasing, one wishes it had.
Small cadenzas were miracles of sculpted precision and, when not extolling the elegiac, Hanley caught the perky humour of the second subject theme along with the work's deliciously coy coda.
Stier played his part in maintaining an all-important balance, setting up the perfect mock eighteenth century bustle in the first Vivace.
Mozart's celebrated G minor Symphony finally took us to old Imperial Vienna. Yet, Stier's Molto Allegro had dash and daring, seamlessly dovetailing its strings and woodwind when B flat major comes along. The Andante had punch rather than mere prettiness and the open-air of the Landler breathed in the Minuet's Trio. If violins were a little taxed by the Mannheim rocket figures zooming through the Finale, it was a small blemish in a joyous leave-taking.
The final concert in the Splendour series is this Thursday (29 July) and features Mahler Das Lied von der Erde (Songs of the Earth).
