KEY POINTS:
What: Farr Horizons with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra
Where and when: Auckland Town Hall, tonight 8pm
Marc Taddei is a conductor every bit as comfortable taking an orchestra through Beethoven and Brahms as sharing the stage with Bic Runga or Goldenhorse.
The ebullient American came to New Zealand in 1987 as a trombonist, taking up a position with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. However, he says, "as much as I love the instrument, the repertoire was a little limited. We simply don't have many great works to play."
A 1996 solo turn in the Christopher Rouse Concerto was "as good as trombone music goes".
But a baton allows him to come "to grips with so much great music in a different way. I have been music director of 40 per cent of the country's professional orchestras," he says genially, admitting he is a huge advocate of building trust in audiences.
He is proud that, after five years at the helm of the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra, audience numbers rose by 80 per cent; and tonight, conducting the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra's Farr Horizons concert, he has high hopes for its selection of Ives, Farr and Prokofiev.
First up is Charles Ives' unsparingly brilliant Three Places in New England. Taddei, a Juilliard man, grew up with the music of this American maverick; this particular score is "rough-hewn, fun, hilarious", he enthuses, and "deeply, deeply American".
For Taddei, Ives was a composer in the wrong place at the wrong time, being stranded in a relatively conservative United States when modernism ruled in Europe, "although his extraordinary rhythms make The Rite of Spring look like playschool".
Taddei recalls how he converted Christchurch audiences with Ives' second movement, a topsy-turvy tunefest of a piece.
"Imagine sitting on a road and having one marching band coming from one direction, and one from the other and then they pass each other in front of you," is his sales pitch.
The concert also features a major work by Gareth Farr, the orchestra's resident composer. This year we have had Farr's noisy Rangitoto and sentimental This Last Pace; his Triple Concerto is sterner stuff.
It was written for the New Zealand Trio who play it tonight, as they did for the Christchurch premiere two years ago, also with Taddei on the podium.
"It is one of Gareth's finest works," says Taddei. "He has been really clever in the way he brings the two forces together.
"It starts straight away with the trio and then the orchestra comes in. There's a little bit of to and fro-ing and I really like the way you get the two soundworlds.
"The intimate quality of the trio's music is expanded by the orchestra, which certainly doesn't happen in Beethoven's Triple Concerto," adds Taddei.
"Farr is not only the composer of wonderful rousing works like Te Papa and Sea Gongs which has become an iconic piece in the New Zealand soundscape. Some of the most beautiful moments are in the gorgeous, lightly-scored second movement where there is quite a strong influence of Prokofiev."
A timely influence this, given that the concert ends with the Russian composer's Romeo and Juliet - incorporating the conductor's specially chosen selection of 11 movements from the original ballet.
Taddei's ardent support for Farr is typical of a man who cares about the music being written in this country. "One of the magical things about our culture here, is how many brilliant practitioners there are. Gareth and John Psathas are exceptional in the rare gift they have for appealing to audiences immediately.
"And if we don't confront the music of today," he adds, "we are going to suffer a slow artistic death."
