Sparse Audience At Youth Concert

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31235, 6 December 1966, Page 20

Sparse Audience At Youth Concert

There was a sparse audience in Canterbury Court last evening for a youth concert given by the N.Z.B.C. Symphony Orchestra. This time of year is inauspicious for such a venture: public examinations are hardly finished; school break-up ceremonies are about to spread o’er the plains with the virulence of foot-and-mouth disease; many parties are being given and endured by those whose corporate school companionship is about to end; and the general brouhaha of the season of good-will makes many—including critics—inclined to be tetchy. Clashes with two other musical attractions, and with an excellent circus did not help in drawing the youth of the village in the hoped-for multitudes to the concert. And all that is a pity, for the idea of a youth concert is a good one and well worth trying again at a better season—and with more imaginative programmes.

The concert began with Respighi’s “Fountains of Rome,” a work whose delicacy of colour and whose subtle contrasts of light and shadow make charming appeal and whose scena could hardly be further removed from the bare inelegance of Canterbury Court. The acoustics of this place give some clarity but tend to favour brass and percussion with a bathroom type of resonance and to deaden some of the softer sounds which rely upon top harmonics fop their most telling effect.

The playing, directed by Juan Matteucci, was precise and expressive if not as fully evocative as that heard from the orchestra in other places. Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in D minor, with Peter Clarken as soloist, was played very well indeed and its orchestral sonorities came through richly, but did not lose balance with Mr Clarken, whose touch had a ringing brilliance and soaring singing quality. There was lyrical appeal without sentimentality in the second movement. The tone of the piano carried well in the building, and both orchestra and soloist outlined the movement’s shape with faithful detail. The last move-

ment sped along with bubbling gaiety. Mendelssohn’s immaculate craftsmanship was shown in the work and appreciated in the interpretation—not that even that made the work the happiest choice, from among the concerti, for a recital of this intention.

Mr Clarken’s playing has admirable control but is far from being cold or impersonal. He held interest all the way, in spite of that by the time the concerto was ending the hall was becoming hideously cold, draughty, and uncomfortable.

The bold and dynamic humour of Stravinsky’s “Circus Polka” made strong appeal to the audience and was played with resounding dash and fervour.

Rachmaninov’s Symphony in E minor was sensitively played and its many rich and lush colourings clearly showed the advantage of the increased numbers of players in the orchestra. There was a bright sheen and a thrusting power in the sound of the strings, and the wood-wind section came through into the hall with greater advantage than it had in the other works. Great sweeping crescendi passages surged up with rousing effect and a deep purple colouring gave a prevailing dignity to the first movement. In the realy heavy passages it may be that the wood-wind section would have a better chance of contributing to balance if the players were raised a little from the flat stage. All is well until the forte level is passed. The scherzo was played with many a brilliant burst of fire and the slow movement, with its many lovely intertwining melodies was played with romantic intensity of timbres. The last movement had a cascading brilliance of sound and the whole work was played with excellent understanding of atmosphere, form, and content in a way that aroused much admiration for the conductor and the players. Splendid though the playing undoubtedly was, it is open to question whether this introspective and very long symphony was an ideal choice for a youth concert. —C. F. B.