NZSO plays Adams, Mozart and Beethoven

Mozart + Beethoven
NZ Symphony Orchestra
Auckland Town Hall March 31
Then Wellington April 7

Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto is one of the great works featuring the solo clarinet and Martin Fröst’s performance last week could be labelled not just a great clarinet performance but one of the great solo performances of the last decade. The performance put members of his audience in a rapturous mood as they knew they had witnessed an important musical event.

In his hands, the clarinet became a beguiling instrument which captivated the listeners, who responded with a rare enthusiasm and a prolonged standing ovation.

Fröst was probably expecting that as he and the NZSO were prepared with a sparkling encore – Klezmer Dance No.3 by Goran Fröst (Martin Fröst’s brother) where he had the clarinet sounding like a saxophone.

Fröst did not just perform the music, he became a reincarnation of the energetic restless laid-back Mozart. He was constantly alert to the conductor Edo de Waart and the musicians around him, seeming to sense the music, understanding the structure and dynamics of the work and aware of the part he had to play.

His playing was brilliantly executed with a purity and clarity that seemed to chart new dimensions for the work. Every section was well judged, every quiet moment, every fortissimo was given an emotional charge as he wove his playing into the fabric of the orchestral music.

The first work on the programme, John Adams’ Shaker Loops was one of three works by the composer the NZSO will be playing this year. The piece is partly based on the physical actions of the Shakers, a religious group that shook and trembled when praying and singing. Both the music and the methods of playing, such as the tremolo effects on the stringed instruments were inspired by these actions, Adam’s work is minimalist, repetitive with recurring musical ideas like an intricate series of DNA loops.

The final work on the programme was Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony No 6. This symphony is Romanticism at its finest. Here is Wordsworth’s bliss of solitude and as well as his image of a huge peak, black and huge.

Beethoven captures these qualities of landscape, the description of nature, the natural phenomenon as well as the spiritual feelings they engender.

Edo de Waart carefully guided the orchestra through the drama of the work with a light touch ensuring Beethoven’s melodies and careful arrangements were fully expressed.

Future NZSO concerts

Wellington May 5, Auckland May 6

Pierre Boulez, Mémoriale (…explosante-fixe… Originel).

Gareth Farr, Cello Concerto (world premiere)

John Adams, Naïve and Sentimental Music

Wellington May 20, Napier May 25, Tauranga May 26, Auckland May 27

David Grahame Taylor, Embiosis

Dvorak, Cello Concerto in B minor

Tchaikovsky, Symphony No 6