NZSO's Beethoven feast feeds the heart

By TARA WERNER

TOWN HALL, Auckland - Can you have a surfeit of Beethoven? For some reason the Auckland Philharmonia and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra programmed Ludwig's music back to back, three nights in a row last week.

Given the packed houses, the ploy worked. As a marketing exercise the NZSO's A Feast of Beethoven on Friday and Saturday nights was highly successful.

But there were reasons why this musical banquet was so attractive to audiences. Maybe it was the chance to compare analytically two symphonies and two piano concertos.

Or to attempt to comprehend how Beethoven's music cuts through any detachment due to its emotional content, and always speaks direct to the heart in an inexplicable way.

Take the moment when bass solo Rodney Macann stood up in the finale of the 9th Symphony and passionately declaimed the opening words of Schiller's Ode to Joy. The atmosphere was truly electric.

And, remarkably it was sustained when the other soloists, Patricia Wright, Helen Medlyn and Patrick Power, accompanied by the Auckland Choral Society, joined him.

The choir certainly worked hard, with the sopranos having to cope with a host of high As, and sometimes double forte at that. Luckily they were equal to Beethoven's difficult challenge.

But given the sheer length of the 9th Symphony, there were moments when both orchestra and conductor James Judd seemed to flag a little. Maybe it had to do with the sustained excitement of the performance of the 7th Symphony the night before.

Judd chose to tackle the music in dramatic style, even breaking the tip of his baton during the first movement. A jubilant interpretation that was taken at breakneck speed, but nonetheless was enjoyable.

The two piano concertos performed highlighted an intriguing dichotomy of approach between soloist and orchestra. On the Thursday night pianist Jean Loius Steuerman lent towards a restrained and elegant Mozartian style in the 5th Concerto while the orchestra was definitely in more of an exuberantly romantic mood.

The contrast made Steuerman's encore, the Bagatelle No 1 Opus 126, striking in its graceful simplicity.

In comparison, on Saturday night the two forces seemed much more in accord in the 4th Concerto, which was beautifully articulated, with the pianist playing a lyrical, albeit inward-looking, interpretation.

With all the attention focused on Beethoven it would be easy to forget the New Zealand presence on both programmes.

Jenny McLeod's Little Symphony with its lively joie de vivre was a delightful opener to the first concert. And the two tributes to the recently deceased Douglas Lilburn, from his Diversions for Strings and the 2nd Symphony, made a sincere obituary to this country's most famous composer.