Ross Harris’ Seventh Symphony, originally scheduled for a 2020 premiere, might well have remained a pandemic casualty, but on Thursday night it was a splendid launch for Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra’s Brahms 1 concert.
A seasoned symphonist at 78, Harris has woven three Gregorian chants into a tightly knit single movement,in which moments of terseness and even gruffness share the pages with passages of exquisite beauty.
Benson Wilson sings Mahler. Photo / Supplied
This is a restless, unpredictable score. The pastoral mood of its opening bars is soon subverted by intriguing smudges of dissonance and teasing whiplashes of percussion. Striking contrasts come in spiky dances and jaunty, sometimes sinister marches; after an uproarious climactic tutti, the symphony’s 24-minute life fades into wisps of solo strings.
Harris is a superb colourist. Betraying his past as a horn player, there are sonorous quartets for that instrument, alongside flaring eruptions for trumpet and jewel-like woodwind writing. The strings are allowed to enjoy resonance - one unusual touch being a procession of cello chords.
The orchestra, to a player, dispatched this new work with the pride of ownership, while conductor Giordano Bellincampi attended to every nuance.
There was much orchestral finesse, too, in Mahler’s Songs of a Wayfarer, ranging from chamber-music-like delicacy to the magnificent roar of fully fuelled late Romanticism.
Giordano Bellincampi conducts Ross Harris' Seventh Symphony. Photo / Supplied
Baritone Benson Wilson displayed the authoritative stage presence that won him the Lexus Song Quest a few years ago. If his voice occasionally slipped under the orchestral wall, his crisp characterisations of each song offered immense satisfaction.
Brahms’ First Symphony gave Bellincampi ample opportunities to display the podium theatricality that audiences have come to expect and treasure.
His flamboyant gesturing is not an affectation, however, but a visible shaping and shading of the music, from when the symphony’s imposing opening retreats to quieter territory. One heard almost Italianate passions coming from its lovely Andante sostenuto while the exultation of Brahms’ great finale seemed a celebration of the whole evening’s memorable music-making.
Ross Harris discusses his Seventh Symphony at a pre-concert talk in Auckland. Photo / Supplied
