KEY POINTS:
Two years ago, the NZ String Quartet travelled to Canada for their most ambitious undertaking to date - the recording of the complete String Quartets of Mendelssohn. Volume One is now out, comprising the first, fourth and final quartets, opening with shivering tremolos that remind one of those Vivaldi forest fires. A spacious recording renders it all up close and possibly dangerous; you might find yourself ducking to miss a flying chord from the Sixth's Finale.
The NZSQ is at its best when dramatic is on the agenda, but a little less successful catching the pretty lyricism that so permeates this composer's music. The Canzonetta of the First Quartet is a case in point and would have benefited from more gracefully shaded phrasing.
A sense of dialogue is another of the players' strengths, although more could have been made of the sometimes sentimental chromaticisms that are such a Mendelssohn hallmark. Nevertheless, such honest, forthright interpretations, available at a modest price, deserve a warm recommendation.
The NZ Symphony Orchestra is relaxing after its recent Sibelius and Rautavaara CDs, crossing the Tasman to take on John Antill's 1946 ballet score, Corroboree. World music before its time, Antill's score has been praised for its respectful incorporation of aboriginal material; nevertheless, concert-seasoned ears will find it more picturesque than ethnomusicological.
Producer Tim Handley couches the orchestra in spectacular Michael Fowler Centre surround-sound, but this Outback trip is as much hoe-down as Dreamtime, with a nod to composers Stravinsky and Copland more than gods Njirana and Wollunqua.
Conductor James Judd has a talent for this flashy, extrovert music, and the orchestra responds with its brashest, brightest best, from the first bars of An Outback Overture which opens the disc; but search out Lilburn's Drysdale Overture for a more penetrating portrait of a landscape.
Herald rating: * * * *
Mendelssohn String Quartets
Vol 1: NZ String Quartet (Naxos)
Herald rating: * * * *
Corroboree by John Antill
NZ Symphony Orchestra (Naxos)
