‘That,” says Auckland Philharmonia’s Ronan Tighe, “was heroic.” It was, too.
It’s 2012, and we’re in Auckland Town Hall’s bar, having witnessed Stephen De Pledge perform Grieg’s piano concerto. De Pledge wasn’t supposed to be playing, but on the day of the concert, star soloist Piers Lane has slipped and injured himself. When De Pledge receives Tighe’s panicked call, the orchestra is literally on stage waiting for the final rehearsal. What does the pianist remember?
“Not a lot,” De Pledge says, bursting into laughter. “It was one of those bizarre days, but sometimes those are the most memorable performances [for an audience]. People still come up to me and say they were there.”
De Pledge has had more time to rehearse for the NZSO’s four-city Jupiter mini-tour, where he will premiere Lyell Cresswell’s Piano Concerto No.3. It’s the second concerto Cresswell wrote for De Pledge and was completed only weeks before the composer’s death in 2022, the final pages sent from his hospital bed. The pair had known each other since the 1980s, when De Pledge was a violist in the National Youth Orchestra.
“We played his piece Salm,” De Pledge recalls. “I was instantly mesmerised. I’d never heard contemporary music, and I was besotted by the fact that it didn’t have to follow a harmonic narrative; the music spoke for itself.”
When, a decade or so later, De Pledge programmed his debut Wigmore Hall recital, he turned to Cresswell.
“I wrote to Lyell and said, ‘I’ve always loved your music, have you got any piano pieces?’ He sent back all his piano music; I played two of them and we stayed in touch after that.”
De Pledge has performed Cresswell’s “extraordinarily difficult” piano music ever since and remains the composer’s most persuasive champion. I admit I often struggle to find a way in.
“There’s no narrative line and I don’t think there’s supposed to be,” De Pledge offers. “The textures and orchestration and the way the orchestra becomes one big instrument are what’s fascinating about his writing. I feel the way to listen is to let yourself be carried by the sounds, rather than thinking, ‘What’s happening, where’s this going?’”
Unsurprisingly, De Pledge has mixed emotions about playing his friend’s final work.
“It feels like the end of a long journey,” De Pledge says. “Of all the New Zealand composers, he’s the one I’ve played the most, the one I’ve given the most first performances of, and the one I’ve played most internationally.”
The pianist pauses, visibly moved. “I’m sad he’s not here,” he says finally. “But the overriding feeling is gratitude, because I just thought he was great.”
NZSO: Jupiter, Wellington, September 19, Hastings, September 20, Auckland, September, 21, Christchurch, September 27.
