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Concerts I've got upcoming to attend before the end of this year....

• Bach Mass in B Minor (Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra — Thursday, 18th November)

• Houstoun plays Rachmaninov (Vector Wellington Orchestra — Saturday, 17th November)

• Season Finale (Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra — Thursday, 22nd November)



Concerts already on the list for next year (I've got the time off work)....

• Benjamin Britten: War Requiem (Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra — Saturday, 23rd March 2013)

• “Not Your Grandma’s Organist” (Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra — Thursday, 18th July 2013)

• Joie de Vivre (Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra — Thursday, 19th September 2013)

• German Romantics (Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra — Thursday, 17th October 2013)

• Season Finale (Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra — Thursday, 14th November 2013)



There are a few more APO concerts I'd like to go to next year, but I'd be pushing things a wee bit too much to get the time off from work.

New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and Vector Wellington Orchestra haven't released their programmes for next year yet.

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WOW....what a buzz!

The Bach Mass in B Minor was absolutely superb....well worth travelling up to Auckland for (the work was performed by the Vector Wellington Orchestra and Orpheus Choir two years ago, but I couldn't get the time off from work). The amazing thing is that Bach himself never ever heard the completed work. In fact, he only heard a tiny fraction of it. After he died, the score gathered dust for over a hundred years (basically Bach's music went out of fashion and died with him). It was only when a much later generation of musicians and composers, beginning with Felix Mendelssohn started digging out Bach's musical scores and putting on performances of his works that the world woke up to what a huge musical genius Bach was. And even today, people have no clue as to why Bach (who was a staunch protestant) wrote as his finest choral work, a Roman Catholic Latin Choral Mass. Many people consider Bach's Mass in B Minor to be the greatest choral work ever written. It is certainly an epic feat for any orchestra and choir which sets out to perform it.

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Bach Mass in B Minor (Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra — Thursday, 18th November)



But its not November yet???

I do envy those of you who have ready access to such performances.
Where I live , the premiere annual events are Bull riding, V8 Supercars and Cairns Ukelele Festival

Townsville does have its Chamber Music Festival which attracts performers from a round the globe, but you see nothing else like that until you head south to Brisbane.

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Oct 20, 2012 6:58:51 GMT 10 @grim said:

Bach Mass in B Minor (Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra — Thursday, 18th November)

Yeah, that was a typo (posting stuff without proof-reading it first).

It was meant to be Thursday, 18th October. If you click on the link you'll see the correct date.

I'm lucky living in Masterton, because I get the benefit of living in a sparcely populated area of small towns, open farmland, and bush/mountains, as well as a wild coastline, yet Wellington is only an hour and a half to two hours drive away on the other side of the mountains, or about an hour and a half by train. And in Wellington, there are so many cultural events to choose from that one is really spoilt for choice. Plus, the Vector Wellington Symphony Orchestra usually plays at least two concerts a year in the local town hall, so one doesn't even have to travel for those. And Auckland is only an hour and a quarter away if you fly from the local airport (Air NZ fly between Masterton and Auckland) which opens up heaps more choices.

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That explains it.
You really are spoiled for choice!
That was the thing about Victoria/Melbourne...access to great stuff within a relaitively short distance

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This chap is really “out there”....



Or CLICK HERE to view the video-clip in a larger-sized format.


I saw (and heard) Cameron Carpenter last year when he played with the NZSO National Youth Orchestra in a performance of Samuel Barber's Toccata Festiva in Wellington Town Hall. Next year (in July), he is returning to NZ to perform Joseph Jongen's massive Symphonie concertante, Op.81, with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, followed by a solo concert two nights later, with both concerts to be performed in Auckland Town Hall.

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Concert review: APO, Auckland Town Hall

By WILLIAM DART - Weekend Herald | 5:30AM - Saturday, October 20, 2012



WHAT: Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Stephen Layton with the University of Auckland
Chamber Choir, Sara Macliver (soprano), Kate Spence (alto), James Oxley (tenor) and Jared Holt (bass).

MUSIC BY: Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750).

WHERE: Auckland Town Hall, Thursday evening, 18th November.

JUDGING BY the near-capacity audience for Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra's performance on Thursday of Bach's B minor Mass, our city's choral tradition is still thriving.

The most demanding of the orchestra's Choral Masterpieces series to date, this concert benefited from a smaller band of players, some expert soloists and the prime asset of Stephen Layton. The English conductor is justly celebrated in this area and one could see why from the first few bars of the opening Kyrie eleison.

The finely-gauged balance of forces here was a harbinger of much exquisiteness to come. The voices of the University of Auckland Chamber Choir revealed the advantages of youthful vitality, not to mention the meticulous training of Karen Grylls.

In the Largo that followed, the young singers effortlessly took on the immaculate articulation given out by the instrumental players.

There was jubilation in the Gloria and the Et resurrexit, all aglow with the brilliant gleam of the APO trumpets led by Brent Grapes, while the Hosanna, with further lacings of oboe d'amore, positively danced with joy. Never have I been so pleased to have this section reprised after the Benedictus.

Australian soprano Sara Macliver does not have a large voice, but it was beautifully governed, especially in an agile Laudamus Te, partnered by the deliciously airy violin of guest concertmaster Martin Riseley. Macliver was later joined by alto Kate Spence for a joyous Et in unum Dominum.

It was Spence who provided the final aria of the evening, Bach's Agnus Dei.

English tenor James Oxley gave us a clear, strong Benedictus, singing from memory, floating over the lovely sounds of flautist Catherine Bowie and Eliah Sakakushev von Bismarck's cello.

Bass Jared Holt did not seem so much at ease, especially in his Quoniam tu solus sanctus, which, set against Nicola Baker's rollicking horn obbligato, was tonally constricted and sorely lacking the resonance required.

www.nzherald.co.nz/william-dart/news/article.cfm?a_id=185&objectid=10842388

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Standing ovation an honour well earned

By JOHN BUTTON - The Dominion Post | 8:23AM - Monday, 19 October 2012


MUSIC DIRECTOR: Marc Taddei has brought imagination
and commitment to music-making in the capital.
— Photo: Fairfax NZ.

WHAT: Vector Wellington Orchestra conducted by Marc Taddei with Michael Houston (piano).

MUSIC BY: Joseph Haydn, Sergei Rachmaninov and Franz Schmidt.

WHERE: Wellington Town Hall, Saturday evening, 17th November.

IN THIS, the last concert of the year for the embattled Wellington Orchestra, a large audience was in attendance to appreciate both the quality on offer, and the imagination and commitment that Marc Taddei has brought to music-making in the capital.

The audience was drawn by the ever popular Rachmaninov Second Piano Concerto and Michael Houstoun, and they were not disappointed. His was a performance with the assurance of having played the work seemingly forever, and his technical assurance and poetic instinct drew a justified standing ovation.

But the real reason for drawing such a large audience was to introduce them to the powerful, deeply affecting, Fourth Symphony of Franz Schmidt. It is amazing that this was the first New Zealand performance of this taut, rich work and Marc Taddei, conducting from memory, gave a performance of extraordinary tension.

The heart of the work is the adagio A requiem for my daughter, which opens and closes with a deeply affecting cello solo — here played with marvellous assurance by Jane Dawson — and includes a funeral march as intense as Titurel's funeral from Wagner's Parsifal. The symphony opens and closes with a trumpet solo of wide intervals and great individuality, played nervelessly by Barrett Hocking.

The expanded orchestra played the whole work wonderfully well — not the richness of the Vienna Philharmonic, which has been closely associated with the work, but still with a confidence and projection that was riveting.

The concert opened with yet another Haydn symphony. The Symphony No.44 ‘Trauer’ showed that the orchestra has grasped the Haydn style to the point that, for many, it might have been the concert's secret highlight.

www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/culture/performance/7967392/Standing-ovation-an-honour-well-earned

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Musician wanted for $4m organ

By NICOLE PRYOR - Auckland City Harbour News | 5:00AM - Thursday, 15 November 2012


SOUND OF MUSIC: The Auckland Town Hall organ is worth $4m. — Photo: HANS WEICHSELDAUM.

AN ORGAN worth millions sits in Auckland Town Hall, and now those who manage it want to employ a specialist musician to play it.

Auckland Town Hall Organ Trust, the group managing the $4 million instrument, went to the council's Culture, Arts & Events Committee yesterday to ask for $30,000 a year to pay the proposed organist.

There had been an organist employed in the past — Dr John Wells — but he was paid $1000 a year when he started in the 1970s with his money later peaking at around $4000.

The chairman of Auckland Town Hall Organ Trust, Kevin Bishop, wants the position to be reinstated with more demands and expectations.

"The last organist was really treated as cleaning staff. We want a much more enhanced position, with a proper job description and expectations," he said.

"This instrument is the biggest organ in New Zealand and one of the finest in the world. It needs a professional organist."

On top of playing the organ on demand, the city organist would also promote the instrument, use it for training other organists and use it for entertaining guests.

Bishop said the analogies used by backers of the position were that you would not open a new swimming pool with no instructors, or get a new ECG machine in a hospital with no cardiologist to operate it.

"You can't get a new organ and not have someone who understands it, can play it, and can use it to train other organists and practice," he said.

"Also, at a public recital, there's nothing like being shown the ultimate machine."

He said the organ is already very active and getting a bigger profile, being used by the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, Auckland schools, festivals, and private dinners.

Councillors attending the meeting supported the idea and decided it will be discussed at the annual plan 2013/14 meetings.

www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/auckland-city-harbour-news/7953977/Musician-wanted-for-4m-organ

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What a fabulous evening of fine music I've just experienced.

The Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra's final subscription concert for the year was the icing on the cake following the Vector Wellington Orchestra's final subscription concert last Saturday evening featuring a Haydn Symphony, an outstanding performence of Rachmaninov's 2nd Piano Concerto featuring Michael Houstoun on the piano, and the huge 4th Symphony of Franz Schmidt.

Tonight's concert featured two major works. The concert began with Olivier Messiaen's L'Ascension. Now I am very familiar with this work, but in its later version where it was considerably expanded and scored for the organ. That version is one of the real giant pieces of music written for the organ in the 20th century. However, I have never heard the original version which was scored for orchestra....at least until tonight. It was well worth travelling to Auckland for. Then, following the interval, it was time for Mahler's 5th Symphony. An absolutely fabulous performance, brilliantly played. A real bang to end the APO's year.

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Concert review: Mahler and Messiaen, Auckland Philharmonia

By WILLIAM DART - Weekend Herald | 5:30AM - Saturday, November 24, 2012


German conductor Eckehard Stier works with students from across
Auckland ahead of the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra concert.
— Photo: Richard Robinson.

WHAT: Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra.

MUSIC BY: Messiaen and Mahler.

WHERE: Auckland Town Hall on Thursday evening, 22nd November.

WE HEAR too little Messiaen in concert and that is a shame, considering his importance and the infinite approachability of his music. The Ascension, four 1935 "symphonic meditations", was a spiritually uplifting launch for Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra's season finale on Thursday, under music director Eckehard Stier.

Messiaen's opening vision of Christ, sounding like a roving improvisation on a heavenly organ, billowed and bloomed, despite an occasionally ragged ensemble.

The work's first Alleluia was caught by birdsong-like wind sonorities, nestled in between sinuous orchestral unisons. The second, led by a jaunty trio of trumpets, was answered by Christ's final prayer, in which the rapturous string chorale echoed what wind and brass had given us to open the piece.

After interval, Stier continued his Mahlerian journey with the popular Fifth Symphony. If Mahler considered that the symphony should embrace and reveal the world, then here the first movement alone is a veritable universe.

Stier and the musicians relished cataclysmic contrasts, from the stark almost military ambience of the first pages, with trumpeter Brent Grapes in fine form, to sad klezmer-tinged laments, realised in exquisite detail.

Terrifying moments, in which it all erupts into a wild, expressionist wake, chilled with their unnerving exhilaration.

In the Scherzo, Stier showed us innocence caught in the clutch of life, as naive, folkish dances wove through the tumult around them.

After a poised and poignant Adagietto, there were more eruptions in the Finale, looking forward to the musical and psychological fragmentation of symphonies to come.

This superb concert was launched by chief executive Barbara Glaser, optimistic about the outcome of the Government's orchestral review.

Glaser also paid tribute to the retiring Brecon Carter who, through more than three decades of loyal service, much of it as concertmaster, has seen the orchestra rise to its fully professional status.

Would that The Edge was as professional in its upkeep of venues. Once again, noisy, cantankerous air conditioning usurped the more reflective moments of both works. Surely this can be put right before a new season is upon us?

www.nzherald.co.nz/concerts/news/article.cfm?c_id=161&objectid=10849579

[caskur]

here.... move up in the times ktj

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Dec 2, 2012 19:50:59 GMT 10 caskur said:

here.... move up in the times ktj

Okay....so now that we have established that you are a dumb, musically-illiterate boofhead, it's time to post about something more substantial than the mere fluff you get into.

[Deleted]

Auckland Arts Festival: The battle of Britten

The composer's centenary will be marked with a performance
of his symbolic war work, reports William Dart.

By WILLIAM DART - Weekend Herald | 5:30AM - Saturday, March 16, 2013


Composer Benjamin Britten.

AUCKLAND ARTS FESTIVAL celebrates Benjamin Britten's centenary not once, but twice next week. On Saturday, the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, under Eckehard Stier, with three international soloists and spectacular choral forces, takes on the 1962 War Requiem; three nights previously, Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir and the New Zealand Youth Choir, with organist James Tibbles, present a selection of choral and organ music.

Karen Grylls is involved with both, as chorus master for the Requiem and sharing conducting duties with David Squire in the earlier concert. Grylls discovered Britten's music in recordings, "back in the days of vinyl", but it was composer Douglas Mews who took her more deeply into the composer's world.

"I had arrived in Auckland as a graduate student," she remembers. "Douglas saw that I was interested so I ended up making quite a study of Britten's Church Parables."

Immediately, she was struck by the connecting of traditions. "These Christian Parables started with boys and men, dressed in monk's robes, coming on to a Noh stage," she explains.

"Britten had visited Japan and saw these works as a way of bringing different cultural threads together."

At the time, she admired how Britten "brought various musical ideas together in confrontation. They were rarely subsumed and mostly remained identifiable. Here was someone who could write for anything and that's what impressed me as a student. Whatever he put down made perfect sense, whatever the ensemble, and there weren't many composers who could do that."

Britten was very much an alternative voice in an England still dominated by the mana of Vaughan Williams and the folksong tradition. His first teacher, at the age of 14, was composer Frank Bridge and, early on, he was drawn to the music of Schoenberg and Berg. He was also gay, writing many of his works for his life partner, tenor Peter Pears, a conscientious objector during the years of World War II.

"He stood out against the crowd," Grylls stresses. "Perhaps because of this he had the courage to write what mattered to him."

The 1962 War Requiem was certainly such a work, reflecting his views on the horrors and futility of war, dedicated to four young friends who had perished in the conflict. It was a deeply symbolic piece, written for the consecration of Basil Spence's newly built Coventry Cathedral, calling for three specific soloists — one English (Pears), one German (baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau) and one Russian (Galina Vishnevskaya). Soviet visa problems prevented Vishnevskaya from being available for the premiere performance but she lent her thrilling presence to the 1963 recording.

Grylls points out how carefully Britten chose the texts for the piece, alternating Latin funeral rites with verses from the poet Wilfred Owen, himself a casualty of World War I.

"I can't imagine Britten wanting to write a Requiem that used only the Latin texts," Grylls adds.

There was a point in having the soprano sing in Latin. It was closer to operatic Italian than to English for the language-challenged Vishnevskaya.

However, giving these words to a choir of treble voices somehow catches the purity of the service.

"You understand the formality of the ritual," Grylls adds. "It represents the innocence of youth; in fact, this could be an anthem for doomed youth. It's very bitter and there's no surprise when the first Owen poem opens with, ‘What passing-bells for those who die as cattle’?"

Owen's words are absolutely crucial to the piece, Grylls feels, and nowhere more so than in the Offertorium section.

Here, Britten cuts across the stern fugal setting of Quam olim with the tenor and baritone singing of Abraham who "slew his son, and half the seed of Europe, one by one".

Grylls pauses after quoting the Owen words, as if to take in the enormity of the image. "You can't even begin to take all of that in. My father lied about his age to join the forces at the end of the war. Today's young singers don't have the same stories or the same connection."

When she works with her choristers, she stresses the dramatic impact of Britten's Libera Me, which works through to a climax of fury, after the trebles have sung "Deliver me, O Lord, from eternal death in that awful day when the heavens and earth shall be shaken".

"In rehearsal, I mention what happened when England was bombed during the Blitz, or that raid on Dresden when fires blazed through the city and there was no place for the people to go," Grylls explains. "It's a whole story, and the work is about storytelling."

This is the second time Grylls has been involved with Britten's War Requiem, the first being in 1997 when the APO played it at the Holy Trinity Cathedral, under Michael Lloyd, with Dame Malvina Major heading the soloists. "Michael walked into the first rehearsal and said how he thought we could really make something of this," she says.

And, fatefully, the first of the two performances coincided, almost to the hour, with the funeral of Princess Diana. "It was very poignant. It was a phenomenal experience."

Wednesday's Little Britten concert is on a smaller scale, with a cheeky title that inevitably casts up images of Matt Lucas and David Walliams in different states of crossdress.

Grylls admits she has "seen some of the TV shows but doesn't watch it avidly", preferring to see the event as "a marvellous chance to bring the 76 voices of Voices NZ and the National Youth Choir together".

She will conduct Voices NZ in Sacred and Profane, a sequence of eight medieval settings that is "one of Britten's last pieces. Its premiere was directed by Peter Pears four years after his death."

A 1944 Festival Te Deum that features all the singers as well as James Tibbles on the Holy Trinity organ is quintessential Britten. "It's not a crowd-pleaser," she warns, "but he does draw you into it, right through to those last few organ chords, some pianissimo (very soft) unaccompanied voices and finally a single treble voice floating off into the distance."

______________________________________

Auckland Arts Festival

What: Little Britten.
Where and when: Holy Trinity Cathedral, Parnell, Wednesday at 7pm.

What: War Requiem.
Where and when: Auckland Town Hall, Saturday March 23 at 8pm.

www.nzherald.co.nz/auckland-arts-festival/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503046&objectid=10871533

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Auckland arts festival: War Requiem

Magnificent offering soulfully delivered.

By WILLIAM DART - The New Zealand Herald | 5:30AM - Monday, March 25, 2013


Eckehard Stier ensured that the last section gave the resolution
that our souls demanded, says William Dart.

SUBSTANTIAL classical music has been meagre in this Auckland Arts Festival.

Little surprise then that the 90 engrossing minutes of Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra's War Requiem resulted in a packed town hall. This was a magnificent undertaking — not only because of the indisputable quality of Britten's score, but for the way in which it brought together the city's young musicians with the APO in one of the monumental works of the last century. Watching Eckehard Stier on the podium, one could sense Britten's music emanating from his baton.

Stier has spoken of the piece's political impact and implications. He was clearly enjoying the bristling eclecticism with Britten's references running from Bach and Verdi to Bernstein and Carl Orff.

The opening was appropriately sober and we sensed the weighty sorrows through terse orchestral tensions.

The racing fugue of Quam Olim seemed to be powered from within and, throughout, one was struck by the finesse of instrumentalists' solo contributions.

Stier ensured that the last section, saturated with the colours of full orchestral and choral forces, gave the resolution that our souls demanded.

Shamefully, at this point, and earlier on, during a particularly hushed moment, the atmosphere was broken by a cellphone.

Tenor Timothy Robinson was outstanding. The signature of Peter Pears is all over this part, and Robinson had both the vocal flexibility for free-range virtuosity and the lyricism to make the Agnus Dei melt hearts. Baritone Ivan Ludlow was excellent, too, both duetting with Robinson in the Dies Irae and in his final observations on the pity of war.

Soprano Orla Boylan has a voice with Wagnerian heft.

She effortlessly soared over the choirs and, where needed, came up with that "wild animal sound" Britten called for.

The combined singers of Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir and the New Zealand Youth Choir, together with the local Auckland Chamber Choir, were splendid.

So too was the young treble choir, conducted by Karen Grylls, expertly navigating Britten's tricky lines over John Wells' pellucid organ sonorities.

______________________________________

Classical music

What: “War Requiem”.
Where: Auckland Town Hall.
When: Saturday, March 23rd.

www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment-reviews/news/article.cfm?c_id=1502967&objectid=10873332

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• Cameron Carpenter

....playing with the Auckland Philharmona Orchestra tonight in a performance of Joseph Jongen's epic Symphonie Concertante for orchestra and organ, composed in 1926 under commission to Rodman Wanamaker of the Wanamaker Department Store in Philadelphia. The intention was for it to be performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra in the Grand Court of the store with legendary French organist Marcel Dupré playing the Grand Court Organ, with the composer conducting the work. However, due to the death of the composer's father, it was postponed until the following year, then Rodman Wanamaker died suddenly, so the performance never happened. The work was eventually premiered in Europe to critical acclaim, then was at long last performed in the Wanamaker store (now Macy's) about four years ago (with the Philadelphia Orchestra) for Macy's 150th birthday celebrations. The work is one of the most difficult musical scores ever written, both for the symphony orchestra and the organ. It has never been performed in New Zealand before tonight's upcoming performance in Auckland Town Hall.

On Saturday evening, Cameron Carpenter is following up tonight's concert with the orchestra by performing solo on the Auckland Town Hall Organ.

Then, next Monday evening, he is performing in Napier before heading across The Ditch to give a handful of solo recitals in Australia.

[Deleted]

Did I ever mention that my Great Aunt was, apparantly, a quite renown Concert Pianist ?

[Deleted]

That was a fabulous concert in Auckland Town Hall tonight.

An evening of musical drama on an epic scale, with a "full house" in the Town Hall.

The concert began with Dieterich Buxtehude's Chaconne in E minor (a piece originally composed for the organ), arranged for the symphony orchestra by Carlos Chávez. The work was beautifully played by the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra in a lush performance that ended too soon.

Then, Cameron Carpenter arrived onstage, dressed like a flamboyant rock-star and took his place at the organ console for the performance of Joseph Jongen's Symphonie Concertante, a work of high drama. The perfomances from both the APO and Cameron Carpenter were outstanding. However, Cameron's interpretation of the work was definitely unconventional, with him playing the Town Hall Organ like a gigantic Theatre Organ for much of the first three movements of the work. He also made considerable use of the Bombarde Division of the organ, something not usually heard with a symphony orchestra. The final movement, a glittering Toccata, was simply mind-blowing in sheer scale. After several curtain calls and a standing ovation, Cameron Carpenter returned to the organ and played his version of J. S. Bach's Cello Suite, much of it entirely with his feet, only using his hands at the end when there were simply too many added parts (added by Cameron) to be able to play them all with his feet. During the interval, the ticket office was overwhelmed by members of the audience rushing to purchase tickets to Cameron's upcoming solo concert in Auckland Town Hall on Saturday evening. That solo encore was certainly a great way of self-promoting his solo concert.

After the interval, the APO performed Tchaikovsky's Symphony No.6 in B minor, 'Pathétique', once again in a really dramatic way.

The conductor was Giancarlo Guerrero, and he brought a real latin passion to his interpretations of all three works performed.

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Concert review: APO: ‘Not Your Grandma's Organist’

By WILLIAM DART - Weekend Herald | 10:00AM - Saturday, July 20, 2013



WHAT: Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra with Cameron Carpenter (organ).

MUSIC BY: Buxtehude, Jongen, Tchaikovsky.

WHERE: Auckland Town Hall, Thursday, July 18th.

THE concert's title, "Not Your Grandma's Organist", may have been cumbersome, but there were few empty seats in the town hall on Thursday night — thanks no doubt to Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra's soloist, the media-savvy organist, Cameron Carpenter.

Carlos Chavez's 1962 transcription of a Buxtehude organ Chaconne was the perfect welcoming for the evening's guest.

Conductor Giancarlo Guerrero urged the orchestra to heights of Stokowskian splendour, but did not neglect textural subtleties in more subdued moments.

At the other end of the programme, Guerrero went all out for high-tensile drama in Tchaikovsky's Pathetique Symphony.

The opening pages were laid out on deliciously poised tenterhooks, very much the calm before the storms to come.

Perhaps the 5/4 "waltz" of Tchaikovsky's Allegro con grazia might have fluttered a little more capriciously, but the ensuing Scherzo was so effectively demonic that a burst of applause clouded the first bars of the final, heart-wrenching Adagio.

Predictably, Cameron Carpenter gave a star turn, the only concession to his glittery reputation being spangled tights, which were ideal for giving a theatrical thrust to agile scampering over organ pedals.

Joseph Jongen's Symphonie Concertante proved a worthwhile curiosity, quite possibly being given its New Zealand premiere, 77 years after it was written.

From the start, there was a real team spirit on stage, as the first movement bubbled away with Bachian bonhomie. Not only did Carpenter lace Jongen's original with his own quirky decorations, the American's endlessly inventive palette blended seamlessly with the orchestra, the result of two intensive rehearsals.

The full razzle-dazzle would come in the Toccata that ends the work; before that, Carpenter hurtled through a Divertimento with pinpoint accuracy and a musical paint shop of colours, going on, with the orchestra, to evoke mysterious stained-glass sonorities in Jongen's Molto Lento.

An encore was inevitable and flashy. The Prelude from Bach's First Cello Suite was, initially, a feet-only affair, dazzlingly danced on the pedals. By the end, it was a hands-on, full-scale party, transforming the august civic setting into a circus tent, a piece of alchemy that Carpenter has promised to repeat in tonight's solo recital.

www.nzherald.co.nz/william-dart/news/article.cfm?a_id=185&objectid=10902544

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Concert review: Cameron Carpenter, Auckland Town Hall

By WILLIAM DART - The New Zealand Herald | 10:00AM - Wednesday, July 24, 2013



WHAT: Cameron Carpenter, solo organ.

MUSIC BY: Bach, Liszt, Leonard Bernstein, Carpenter, more Bach, Marcel Dupré, Chopin, Anne Dudley.

WHERE: Auckland Town Hall, Saturday, July 20th.

CAMERON CARPENTER launched his solo recital with the same gaudy encore that he gave us at his Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra concert.

Two nights ago, the American's fairground farrago involving a defenseless Bach prelude had a cheeky piquancy after a solid Symphonie Concertante; tonight was it a hint of more carnival antics to come?

Two Liszt piano etudes were mercilessly chopped and sliced in the endless quest for quirky colours and effects.

The sleek Feux Follets strayed into Barrel Organ Boulevard at one point; La Campanella capitulated in a flatulent blare of pedal leading to a veritable apotheosis of vulgarity.

Leonard Bernstein's Candide Overture is the epitome of mischievous and elegant wit — imagine Prokofiev schmoozing on the Manhattan cocktail circuit.

Carpenter took it to the country fair, and a bumpy ride it was with endlessly flickering registrations. It was fascinating to watch lithe footwork on the big TV screens, but painful to hear such stylish music downgraded to burlesque.

A bracket of original composition never strayed from the ordinary, often steeped in Tin Pan Alley's juiciest chord sequences, unfortunately without tunes to match.

Bach, played more or less straight, survived best. The G minor Fantasia and Fugue may have lingered a little here and there, but episodes were cleverly tinted and the Fugue a virtuoso turn, delivered, like most of the programme, from memory.

Loveliest of all was what the organist introduced as a dip back into childhood to play a piece from the catechism of all music. The G major Prelude from the first book of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier was a dancing delight.

Marcel Dupre's Variations sur un Noel showcased the town hall instrument in what Carpenter had described as a musical fashion show. Ten variations and a Finale flitted by in ten easy minutes, brilliantly coutoured.

It was not a long concert and two encores were miniatures.

Chopin fared better than Liszt when Carpenter's feet pirouetted over the pedals in his Minute Waltz; followed by a Wurlitzer whirl through Anne Dudley's Jeeves and Wooster theme that bade us a final and fleet farewell in just over 90 seconds.

www.nzherald.co.nz/william-dart/news/article.cfm?a_id=185&objectid=10902547

[Deleted]

I've been to the opera in Wellington this evening.

The students of the New Zealand School of Music are putting on a four-night season of Verdi's “Il Corsaro” in The Opera House.

It was a very polished performance, featuring some very talented up-and-coming young opera singers.

The orchestra also consisted of students from the NZ School of Music.

A very enjoyable evening.

[KTJ]

• The Secret Life of Conductors

The most prestigious and yet misunderstood role in the orchestra must be that of the conductor. This mysterious person, with their back to the audience, hands waving in the air, casts a spell on the musicians and — on a good night — creates an intoxicating alchemy for the ears.

For The Secret Life Of Conductors, Kirsten Johnstone speaks with some of NZ's most notable maestros, Marc Taddei, Hamish McKeich, Gemma New, and Wyn Davies, about the intricacies of their jobs.

You can listen to “The Secret Life of Conductors” from Radio NZ's website by clicking on the above hotlink, then clicking on Play. Or you can right-click on MP3 and in the menu which appears, left-click on Save target as.... and select where you wish to save it to; the audio file will then download and save to your selected location.