What: Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra
Where: Auckland Town Hall
When: Thursday at 8pm
Just two weeks ago, Raphael Wallfisch was in the Netherlands, touring as soloist in Offenbach's Grand Concerto Militaire. "It was a mammoth undertaking," he says. "A completely and utterly exhausting work - 50 minutes long and a little like playing two Paganini violin concertos in a row."
The Konzertstuck by Hungarian composer Ernst von Dohnanyi, which the English cellist plays with Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra next Thursday, is half the length of the Offenbach but equally far from the familiar concerto trail.
"The Dohnanyi was a warhorse in the earlier part of the last century," says Wallfisch. "Then it just dropped out of favour, although Janos Starker has played it regularly in recent years.
"I know it's a great favourite of [conductor] Roy Goodman and that he jumped at the chance of programming it. But then it's a wonderfully rewarding piece, for the orchestra as well as for the cellist."
He picks out a few highlights including a cadenza in which he is backed by eight orchestral cellos ("just like Rossini's William Tell Overture") and summarises the work's prime virtue in just four words, "It's a great tune!"
There are more memorable melodies in the many unusual scores Wallfisch has revived in concert and on disc. Only last week he was recording Weber, Reicha, Danzi with a transcription of Spohr's A minor Violin Concerto.
"Funnily enough, this is a work that my wife, Elizabeth, recorded with Roy Goodman and his Brandenburg Orchestra. It's a pity I'm not doing it in New Zealand, although we still could," he laughs.
I suggest a Spohr movement might be a possible encore. "What a good idea!" is the immediate response. "I'll bring the parts!"
This month Wallfisch premiered a new version of the Schumann Concerto, scored for strings alone, an arrangement that he commissioned from the Swiss composer Arthur Lilienthal. "This was originally Schumann's idea. He wrote to his publishers suggesting a version for strings but they were not interested. Using only strings gives [it] a real luminosity."
It was through a similar project Wallfisch met Rodion Shchedrin.
He asked the noted Russian composer to arrange some short Prokofiev pieces for cello and orchestra, and the two men ended up recording Shchedrin's music for cello and piano. "Rodion is a survivor. I don't think he was either for or against the Soviet system but he did very well out of it. Being close to Shostakovich, he was able to get through and not be pushed down. On the musical side, he's very demanding and pushed me to my limits playing-wise."
But then, looking back at those crucial two years studying with Gregor Piatigorsky, he admits the legendary cellist was "always pushing us to realise the potential we had.
"He gave us courage and made us realise just how much we could expect of ourselves."
"Above all, it was his humour and humanity that inspired us. Piatigorsky was very warm and generous, and you have to be absolutely confident in yourself to be so generous.
"And, let's face it, some of the most highly successful people today, especially conductors, are probably the least generous and the least confident of people."
