Pianist Ingrid Fliter performs during Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra concert Sir Andrew Davis: A Tribute at the Auckland Town Hall. Photo / Sav Schulman
Pianist Ingrid Fliter performs during Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra concert Sir Andrew Davis: A Tribute at the Auckland Town Hall. Photo / Sav Schulman
Auckland Philharmonia’s Sir Andrew Davis: A Tribute was a magnificent salute to the celebrated English maestro who, had he not passed away in April, would have graced the podium on Thursday night.
At the helm instead was Karl-Heinz Steffens who, earlier this year, treated us to a Brucknerian immersion fest,when he replaced an unavailable Johannes Fritzsch.
In Beethoven’s Leonore Overture No 3 one easily succumbed to the meticulous detail of the German conductor’s Adagio, wild swelling crescendos hinting at a compelling Allegro ahead.
Steffens’ finesse with the same composer’s Third Piano Concerto transformed its initial exposition into a game of compulsive logic; his orchestral wrap-around soloist Ingrid Fliter in the Largo stressed the unfolding of a remarkable organic unity.
The Argentinian pianist, like Steffens, obviously enjoyed the structural clarity of this score, its humour and surprises, as well as the high drama of its cadenza, her eerie trilling textures almost taking us into another century.
Conductor Karl-Heinz Steffens. Photo / Sav Schulman
Fliter’s admirable forcefulness with Beethoven did not serve her encore, Chopin’s D flat Nocturne, so well, with self-indulgent rubato and wilful dynamics blunting the composer’s shifting moods.
Sir Andrew Davis had specifically chosen Vaughan Williams’ Job for this programme. It was a work he had recorded twice, 26 years apart and, in the programme booklet, Steffens acknowledged its special status.
This 1930 ballet is a brilliant piece, with bold colourings that its composer would remember in later film scores. Pastoral pages were alluringly sumptuous on Thursday night with Andrew Beer’s melancholy violin solo reminding us of Vaughan Williams’ popular Lark Ascending.
Steffens and his players caught the dream-like quality of the ballet’s archaic dances, but whenever Satan was around, he could well have been a belligerent companion to Koschei, the villain of Stravinsky’s The Firebird.
Ballet music tells stories, and surtitles might well have added to the enjoyment of many. Specific descriptions in the score offer insight into the music, especially with Michael Jamieson’s bluesy alto saxophone solo — such a vivid portrayal of Job’s false comforters, three wily hypocrites in Satan’s service.
