Principles and parochialism

By HEATH LEES

You have to hand it to Wellington for establishing a successful international arts festival in the capital and doggedly insisting that it's for the whole of New Zealand.

Since no one's come up with any competition (the projected "festival of Auckland" for 2003 won't make them lose any sleep) the biennial festival in Wellington is likely to remain the country's only regular top-line arts event and international showcase.

So when Ian Fraser, CEO of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, spat the dummy and complained in public that an orchestra from Vienna was being invited to Wellington to play in the next festival, people all over the country were bewildered. Isn't this the kind of thing international festivals are supposed to do? Doesn't Vienna have the best orchestras in the world?

Yes and no. Fraser pointed out that the festival's wide-eyed hype will make everyone think that the invading orchestra is the Vienna Philharmonic - so good that it's in a class by itself.

Not every Viennese orchestra is as fantastic as the Vienna Philharmonic, said Fraser. Although the Vienna Symphony Orchestra had a good international standard, the NZSO was just as good, if not better.

Is he right? Research shows that the VSO has been going for 100 years, and tours frequently to other countries. It gives gruelling concert seasons in Vienna (14 concerts this month, an average of one every second night, excluding Sundays). In a catalogue spread over 24 different recording labels, it has more than 130 CDs available, many with leading soloists and conductors.

But it's easy to get the wrong impression through big names and productions. One of the VSO's recently reissued recordings has Russian pianist Sviatoslav Richter billed alongside the great Herbert von Karajan. Fabulous, you would think, but the recording was done in 1963, when Richter was comparatively young and Karajan, still tainted with the Nazi image, was having trouble finding work. In fact, the performance is painfully slow and Teutonic, and even Richter sounds uncomfortable throughout.

Nowadays, the test of an orchestra is simply "How well does it play?" Perhaps the VSO could reply, "Why not let us come, and you can decide?"

Not a bad idea. If the NZSO is just as good, why not have a couple of concerts by each orchestra and let New Zealand audiences make up their own minds?

Alas, the answer to all these questions is money. Flying symphony orchestras across the world today is crazy unless you have huge subsidies, and an utterly outstanding orchestra.

Word is that the VSO does indeed have big financial backing from private and public sources, so maybe New Zealand isn't forking out so much. But if the visit of this one orchestra is soaking up funds that would go on the visits of individual artists, and smaller groups, then it seems wrong.

Recordings and reviews support Fraser's comments. The VSO is very good, but not outstanding. Our own national orchestra is at least in the same bracket, and the rumour that it hasn't yet been given a concert in the festival is alarming. Today's huge CD market also suggests that visits to New Zealand by big overseas symphony orchestras are no longer worth the price.

But having a number of visiting overseas performers remains vital, and protects us from the Kiwi parochialism that refuses to invite other strengths and spirits to its shores because it feels we have equally good talent here already. Of course we do, but that shouldn't stop us enjoying the differences and expanded horizons that artists from other countries bring to a festival.

While drawing the line at full symphony orchestras all the way from central Europe, we can still learn much from top-class festival visitors, even if we do believe we are as good as they are. Fruitful exchange is what counts, and for New Zealand there's the healthy condition of being a global partner in today's arts scene, despite the separating distance. Some visitors invite New Zealand arts groups back to their festivals too.

But the real payoff is that by welcoming overseas performers, listening to them and learning from them, we become even better ourselves - better listeners, better performers, better sharers and enjoyers of what it can mean to be human and alive on this planet.

Great reasons for being confidently good in what we achieve here, yet still keeping the arts festival international.