KEY POINTS:
At a time when lahars are coursing down Ruapehu, AK07's advertising is surprisingly low-key for a Grand Finale concert that promises more than a few seismic thrills.
This Sunday, the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra's Fire-Wind-Water has three Pacific Rim composers - John Adams, Toru Takemitsu and our own Gareth Farr - conducted by the ebullient Giancarlo Guerrero.
This week Guerrero has come to us straight from a premiere of Michael Daugherty's new piano concerto, Deus ex Machina with the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra, and the upcoming Fire-Wind-Water is clearly the programme of his dreams.
He confesses he is John Adams' greatest fan. "There is not a piece I don't like," is the verdict. "This man has taken minimalism to a new romantic and expressive level."
Guerrero should know. He worked closely with the composer when he conducted Adams' Violin Concerto with his Eugene Symphony and sees Adams as a humble man, always grateful to have his music performed, even though he is one of the most played of all contemporary composers.
"He is wonderfully down to earth and, considering that his music is so driven by energy, he himself is the complete opposite, very subdued, almost like a university professor."
I suggest that some Aucklanders might be frightened off Sunday's Harmonielehre, which is one of the two major offerings on Sunday, if they check out Adams' programme note that talks of Schoenberg, Jung and Parsifal, but Guerrero will have none of this.
"It's a very high topic if you want to call it that," he jests, "but this music is as approachable as it gets. The orchestra becomes a virtuoso and people are going to experience the wow factor when they hear a work like this.
"This is not 'brainy' music," he stresses, "this is not music that requires a certain level of sophistication. This is music that will simply take you over, from those first very, very loud chords, which came to Adams as he was driving over the Golden Gate Bridge. The chords catch the hugeness and majesty of it all.
"The audience will be absolutely captivated because all they are going to get is colours and sounds coming their way."
Harmonielehre closes a programme that opens with Gareth Farr's Rangitoto, which Guerrero, a percussionist himself, describes as "using the orchestra as a great rhythm machine. There is part of me that wishes I was back there banging the drums again."
He feels that Farr provides the perfect introduction for the more contemplative world of Toru Takemitsu's From me flows what you call Time, a percussion concerto that brings together five of Australasia's leading players.
"This work has been on my short list for the longest time," Guerrero says, laughing. "It is not only a great piece but a visual experience."
The conductor is referring not only to the exotic range of instruments from Pakistan noah bells to Japanese temple bowls but to the fact the percussionists are carefully defined by wearing coloured handkerchiefs. Long, coloured ribbons will also stream from stage to balcony where there is an array of delicate Eastern bells.
"There are moments, too, when bells are put on top of the timpani; you move the pedals and that creates an incredible sound," Guerrero adds, "when we try to define Takemitsu's individual sound world."
He is also looking forward to the improvisational aspects of the score, or "on-the-spot composing", as he calls it.
Performance
What: Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, Fire-Wind-Water, AK07
Where and when: Auckland Town Hall, Sunday at 5pm
