Transcript
Review – Jean-Efflam Bavouzet Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra
Jean-Efflam Bavouzet – Piano
Auckland Philharmonic Orchestra
Auckland Town Hall, 15/02/18
Beethoven - Piano Concerto 5 in Eb Op.73 ‘Emperor’
Tchaikovsky - Symphony No 5 in E minor Op.64
Castro-Robinson - Tipping Point
The concert began with Eve de Castro-Robinson’s Tipping Point. This is a short piece in two sections that may be played in any order. Tipping Point is full of varied textures, dynamics, and colours. It is a mixture of punk/metal elements, whirring and clicking sounds, and semi-remembered sonic fragments from dreams. It has its dark undercurrents and draws on all the orchestra’s resources. Tipping Point is haunted by the phantasmagoria of our social-media saturated existence. The music evoked the swirling cultural cacophony we live in hooked up to screens-; cat pictures, rocket launches, celebrities, school shootings, recipes, bombs etc. And always underneath is the fear of catastrophe be it environmental collapse, nuclear war, or some other unspecified global event. The piece is about seeming to be on the edge of a tipping point that changes everything and not for the better. But despite all that darkness it’s funny and ironic music which paid homage to Haydn’s Farewell symphony at its conclusion much to the audience’s delight. This was the perfect opening to the APO’s new season as it evoked the mood of an age where world leaders argued on social media over the size of their nuclear launch- buttons.
I found the performance of the Beethoven piano concerto to be a bit mechanical and boring. Bavouzet isa very muscular player and was fun to watch with his expressive arm movements and engagement with the musicians. But this performance lacked nuance at times and some runs and passages in the middle movement were very messy indeed. It seemed rushed and mannered at times too. Bavouzet captured the imperial aspect well but it was more the brash, conquering, bravado aspects of the ‘emperor’ idea. It might have been better to hear him in repertoire with which he is more comfortable such as a Prokofiev concerto. This felt like it was being phoned in at times. But the audience were very pleased with it and called Bavouzet back to the stage many times. He obliged us with a fine riveting encore of Debussy’s L’isle Joyeuse (The Joyful Island, 1904) I personally enjoyed that more than the entire concerto to be honest.
After the interval, the APO gave a finely judged and absorbing performance of Tchaikovsky’s 5th Symphony. This was powerful and intense at all the right moments as well as lyrical and gentle when appropriate. Thye symphony was opened beautifully with the clarinet playing the theme that binds the entire symphony together and also reappears in various forms and shapes throughout the entire work. The woodwind and brass sections were in very fine form. The horns did a gorgeous job at the start of the 2nd movement with playing that brought out the pathos of the theme with lapsing into sentimentality. This movement was a highlight for me with Bellincampi and the musicians giving us powerful and but controlled climaxes that avoided empty bombast. A lilting 3rd movement with its waltz refreshed us after the strong emotions of the 2nd. I personally do not take much joy in the final movement; its near hysteria is a bit grating. But the APO gave it a balanced and adrenalin pumping reading that avoided bluster. They highlighted the details and colours of Tchaikovsky’s always brilliant orchestration and deserved the rapturous applause that closed the season’s opening concert.
Peter Hoar
