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Keeping you in tune with music and the arts, with David Morriss
LILBURN: Sings Harry - Terence Finnigan (ten), Frederick Page (pno) (KIWI EC-26)
BERNSTEIN: Serenade after Plato's Symposium - Joshua Bell (vln), Philharmonia Orchestra/David Zinman (Sony SK 89358)
BERLIOZ: Nuit d'ivresse, from Les Troyens - Joyce Didonato (mezzo), Michaeil Spyres (ten), Baden State Opera Chorus, Opera National du Rhin Chorus, Strasbourg Phil Chorus & Orch/John Nelson (Erato 9029576220)
BRAHMS: Hungarian Dance No 5 - New Zealand SO/Hamish McKeich (RNZ 2017)
CARR: Two Mansfield Poems - Jennifer Paull (ob d'amore), Read Gainsford (pno) (Amoris AR 1003)
BARTÓK: Concerto for Orchestra - Hungarian State SO/Adam Fischer (PORTRAIT PCL 2109)
Midday
We celebrate National Poetry Day and more news about alleged sexual assaults in the classical world.
1pm NZSO’s Master Conductors on the art of conducting
Edo de Waart leads the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. Edo de Waart leads the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. Photo: Stephen A'Court Photography
Upbeat invites two New Zealand Symphony Orchestra conductors into the studio at the same time. Music Director Edo de Waart and Associate Hamish McKeich discuss the art of conducting and the importance of funding arts and music properly. And we find out if orchestras are as costly as they appear.
1.40pm Brother musicians bring their talents home
Christchurch brothers pianist Jun and cellist Yuuki Bouterey-Ishido are back home and enjoying some quality time together with their family. The talented duo are sharing their love of music with a range of performances in Christchurch and Auckland.
2pm
We round out our series of Hungarian music with Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra with the Hungarian State Symphony Orchestra conducted by Adam Fisher.
Christopher’s Classics – The New Zealand String Quartet with Serenity Thurlow
The Piano, Christchurch – 23 August 2018
How often over the last twenty-or-so months have I sat in this still new Christchurch venue and been moved, inspired, surprised, overwhelmed, awed, or generally carried away by music and music-making of varying degrees of charisma and communication by composers and players who really have something special to say?
Cellist Rolf Gjelsten with the NZSQCellist Rolf Gjelsten with the NZSQ Photo: supplied
There are memories of some very special moments indeed and, if this New Zealand String Quartet concert may not end up being among the best, there was, even so, much to admire and to provoke thought.
In Beethoven’s F Minor Quartet, the NZSQ’s impressive unity of ensemble also managed to allow an expressive freedom and flexibility of phrasing, especially in the first movement.
And the group’s animated commitment to the contrasts of texture and articulation in Bartók’s String Quartet No. 2 made a persuasive case for the piece’s adventurous daring.
That same belief in difficult (from a listener’s point of view) music was also evident in the performance of Webern’s Six Bagatelles.
And, finally, Mozart’s String Quintet in C Major, where the quartet was joined by violist Serenity Thurlow, brought comforting and untroubled relief from the extreme demands of what preceded it.
But somehow this programme wasn’t as convincing as one might have expected.
Although first violinist Helene Pohl introduced the Beethoven quartet, stressing its extreme contrasts of dynamics, tempo, mood, etc., I felt that these contrasts were not made present enough in the performance.
From the outset, a certain homogenous blending of texture struck me in comparison to the character and individuality that Beethoven has built into each of the four textural strands.
The first and third movements certainly demonstrated playing of energy and vitality, but I sensed a certain generalisation in the expression, almost as if the players have reached a point of over-familiarity with a work that’s been in their repertoire for many years and in which they can no longer find anything new.
Or perhaps it’s my fault and that the over-familiarity is something which causes my own need for an exaggerated projection of Beethoven’s expressive invention.
Whatever the case, I can’t help comparing this interpretation with that of another recent Beethoven performance (of an earlier quartet) that I attended where the work came to life in a much more compelling way.
Although I’m not prepared to place any blame for my problems with Bartók’s String Quartet No. 2 on the NZSQ’s performance, I confess to finding it a rather impenetrable piece.
As much as I love and respond to so much of Bartók’s other music, I still have problems with some of his quartets.
Admittedly, this composer’s six string quartets are generally considered almost as central to the quartet repertoire as Beethoven’s, but they are far from an easy listen.
Some years ago I even bought a score of this second quartet in order to help my understanding of its mysteries, but I still have much work to do before its secrets are revealed.
Possibly other members of last night’s audience have reached a more advanced level of understanding of the work, but the interval and post-concert conversations certainly centred on the work’s difficulties for the listener.
The NZSQ’s performance was striking for its commitment and mastery of the work’s idiom but, again, I can’t help recalling a performance of the same composer’s Fourth String Quartet just a couple of weeks ago at the Aspen Festival where its originality, audacity and expressive impact were simply astonishing.
The Fourth is a very different work to the Second, but, even so, in Aspen I was grateful for a performance that helped me cross a barrier; I just need a similar revelation in some of Bartók’s other quartets.
Then, as if to ensure that we didn’t sink back into any sort of complacency, the next work on the programme was Anton Webern’s Six Bagatelles for String Quartet.
Have these six one-page miniatures acquired a sort of quirky novelty value rather than an ability to move us or to stimulate our intellects? Certainly their experimental nature has never faded despite their more-that-one-hundred-year life so far.
The range of articulation and technical effects required is extreme – far more than is found in works of much longer duration. A glance at the score reveals more ink devoted to instructions than to the notes themselves.
But, despite the saturation of such markings in the score and of the intense compression of the composer’s invention, the NZSQ played these pieces with real flair and with all the seeming ease of a Mozart minuet.
And a work by Mozart was the final piece on the programme.
His C Major Quintet is one of his finest chamber works with a first movement bigger in scale than any other instrumental piece that he wrote.
I have already mentioned that this work allowed us to return to our comfort zones after the challenges of Bartók and Webern but, for me, the performance was just a bit too comfortable, seeming a little relaxed and merely pleasant after the works it followed, despite the players’ unfailing vitality.
However enjoyable this performance was, and enjoy it we did, maybe it would have been better at the start of the evening where Mozart’s own brand of originality and progressiveness would have had more impact before the more extreme demands of what was to come.
Overall then, a challenging programme and, although the playing was technically and consistently masterful, it didn’t quite project the fullest expression of the composers’ creativity.
Christchurch viola player Serenity Thurlow proved a superb addition to the NZSQ’s personnel in the quintet in a concert that maintained the impressive quality of the Christopher’s Classics series.
Mention of this series reminds me that the concert also included an on-stage acknowledgement of Christopher Marshall’s contribution to chamber music in Christchurch as well as his support for musicians throughout New Zealand and beyond, and for which he was the well-deserved recipient of this year’s Chamber Music NZ Marie Vandewart Memorial Award.
New Zealand Symphony Orchestra conductor and Music Director Edo de Waart has told Upbeat how important good funding for the arts is.
Edo de Waart leads the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. Edo de Waart leads the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. Photo: Stephen A'Court Photography
De Waart told Upbeat presenter David Morriss that proper funding of orchestras and other arts in New Zealand helps protect our legacy.
“You should be so lucky that you have it [orchestral music],” he says. “The soul of a city or country is in the art.
“If that doesn’t exist you get empty cities with millions of people with nothing.”
The Government subsidises the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra to the tune of $14.6 million per year. The rest of the NZSO’s operating costs are covered by sponsorship.
De Waart argues that we need more investment into the arts, rather than on things like F16 fighter jets; he says the cost of one fighter jet would cover the country’s entire arts budget.
The Music Director has also thrown down a challenge to our politicians; he says they need to care about the arts and he’s invited those decision makers to attend performances.
“It can be hell to talk to politicians about the arts. Arts has no votes,” he says. “Very few [politicians] are cultured enough to realise what makes a country.”
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has already visited an NZSO rehearsal during her term. De Waart was able to talk with her.
“It was nice to say something normal to someone who hopefully will take an interest in the Arts knowing there are not many votes [to be gained there] but real value,” he says.
The wealth of New Zealand poetry has been a rich source of inspiration for New Zealand composers since the 1940s.
Douglas Lilburn, ‘the father of NZ music’ developed deep connections with poets and artists over the course of his career and his music was influenced by their work.
In talking about the New Zealandness of sounds, Lilburn said “…of course the poets could make it so much more explicitly than I could… but I knew that I couldn’t set those poems in an older romantic style. I had to throw out half the notes and make it a bit more ‘stringy’ or sharply defined in a sense. I think it all plays a part in cultivating a style…”
Lilburn’s Salutes to Seven Poets was inspired by the poetry of A. Rex Fairburn, Keith Sinclair, Allen Curnow, Michael K. Joseph, James K. Baxter, Kendrick Smithyman and Ronald A.K Mason
The original version for piano and violin was created for a poetry event at Auckland University in 1952. Here’s Donald Maurice’s arrangement for viola, piano and narrator
The poems of Ruth Dallas have been a popular choice for many New Zealand composers including Douglas Lilburn and his student Dorothy Freed (Deserted Beach for voice and string quartet).
We asked SOUNZ's Chris Watson to pick out one of his favourite Ruth Dallas settings. He chose Dorothy Ker’s solo soprano setting of On the Bridge, sung here by soprano Rowena Simpson.
In the eighties there was a flourishing of song composition in New Zealand, and around 23% of works produced that decade used New Zealand texts.
In 1984, award-winning composer Ross Harris collaborated with writer Witi Ihimaera to create a ground-breaking Maori opera. Waituhi is based on Ihimaera’s novel Whanau - the story of the writer's life in an East Coast (New Zealand) village.
More recently Ross Harris has collaborated with Auckland poet Vincent O’Sullivan. His collaborations with O'Sullivan have produced two operas, a symphony, four song cycles and Requiem for the Fallen. This piece for solo tenor, SATB choir, taonga pūoro, bass drum, and string quartet was co-composed with taonga pūoro specialist Horomona Horo.
One of Ross Harris's O'Sullivan song cycles The Abiding Tides (2010) was described by music critic Rod Biss as "...a work that instantly enriched our heritage of New Zealand music".
In the 90s the amount of works using New Zealand poems increased and there was a considerable rise in the numbers of New Zealand poets represented.
Since 2008 composer Norman Meehan has focused setting poetic text as song. And the result has been six albums featuring his settings of texts by a wide variety of New Zealand poets.
One his most fruitful collaborations has been with poet Bill Manhire and vocalist Hannah Griffin: Buddhist Rain and Making Baby Float, the meditation on Robert Falcon Scott’s ill-fated expedition to the South Pole (These Rough Notes), and more recently settings of Bill Manhire riddles and charms (Tell Me Your Name).
Hannah Griffin also appears on Meehan’s 2015 album Small Holes in the Silence, which includes settings of a number of significant New Zealand poets including Manhire, James K. Baxter, Hone Tuwhare, Eileen Duggan, Alistair Te Ariki Campbell and David Mitchell.
Research conducted by former SOUNZ director Julie Sperring in 2008 discovered that the acclaimed Hone Tuwhare was the poet most likely to be chosen by women composers.
Dorothy Buchanan set five songs from Tuwhare’s No Ordinary Sun for mezzo soprano, flute and piano and Maria Grenfell chose Time and the Child for her cycle for baritone A Pinch of Time.
In 1988 Brigid Ursula Bisley set Tuwhare’s sensual poem Rain for soprano and piano, and almost a decade later 2018 SOUNZ Contemporary Award finalist Leonie Holmes included Tuwhare’s famous poem Rain in her Three Songs for Baritone and Piano. And in 2015, APO Rising Star Composer in Residence Kirsten Strom set Rain for solo mezzo soprano in her work Moodscenes.
Julie Sperring’s research also discovered that the only poet whose texts were used consistently in the solo song genre across all decades was James K Baxter.
In 2010 Te Ahukaramū Charles Royal set Baxter’s poems - High Country Weather, Let time be still and an extract from Stephanie.
“When I hear these poems..." Royal said “… I think of Baxter as a young poet in the South Island (Otago and Canterbury universities) exploring the Otago hinterland. I think, too, of the early days of his relationship with Jacqui Sturm and imagine the two of them exploring the hills and mountains.”
In 2000 Charlotte Yates co-ordinated and released the 'Baxter' CD, with the poetry of James K Baxter set to contemporary music. That CD so impressed Toi Maori Aotearoa that they commissioned Charlotte to repeat the process, this time setting the lyrical poetry of Hone Tuwhare, to a range of musical styles - from Whirimako Black and Dean Hapeta to Don McGlashan and Graham Brazier, and from Te Reo duo Wai to pop favourites Strawpeople.
And in 2011 Charlotte Yates produced Ihimaera Live for the 2011 Auckland Arts Festival. The concert featured lyrics especially written by author Witi Ihimaera, set to music by 12 New Zealand composers.
If you’re looking for something urban, composer Alex Taylor set poems by Auckland’s Iain Sharpe, from his 1985 collection Pierrot Variations, which Alex found in a second hand book shop in Devonport.
Here's Alex Taylor (who is also a poet) singing The Desperados and Watching the Motorway by Moonlight.
And for something that trips off the tongue, The Work's limerick competition this week is on the topic of opera – that grand union of words and music.
This week's winner:
A young singer who played Rigoletto
Took his costume down to the laundretto
Washed his trousers too hot
And they shrunk such a lot
That he sang the whole thing in falsetto
Paula Weir
Christchurch brothers Jun and Yuuki Bouterey-Ishido are back home and enjoying some quality time together with their family.
Jun is a pianist who has already starting to establish his career in Europe as both a soloist and s chamber music player.
Jun left to study at the Liszt Academy in Hungary shortly after winning the Kerikeri Piano Competition in 2008. Last year he won second prize at the Maj Lind International Piano Competition in Finland.
Younger brother Yuuki is an award winning cellist and left home when he was just 14 after being invited to study at the Purcell School in England.
He was in the groups that won the 2007 and 2008 NZ Secondary Schools Chamber Music Competition and was runner up in the National Concerto Competition also in 2008. He's currently finishing his studies at the Royal Northern School in Manchester.
The pair give a duo performance at The Piano next week and Jun gives a solo recital at the Great Hall in Christchurch
Jun plays at the Auckland Museum tonight as part of the Fazioli series.