Second Concert In Series

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32336, 30 June 1970, Page 9

Second Concert In Series

Music by Brahms, I Mozart, Saint-Saens and a contemporary Polish composer is to be played by the Christchurch Civic Orchestra in the Civic Theatre on Saturday night in the second concert of its subscription series. Juan Matteucci, the former conductor of the N.Z.B.C. ; Symphony Orchestra and now. musical director of both the Christchurch orchestra and j the Symphonia of Auckland, I will conduct, and the guest soloist will be Ivan Andrews (pictured), the young Auckland cellist who won this ■ year’s Civic Music Council! concerto competition. Ivan Andrews, who began by studying the piano and later switched to a cello, is at present a pupil of the: Auckland cellist, Marie Vanderwart, and he plans to go overseas later this year for further studies. In the concerto competition he played a Lalo concerto; and on Saturday he will stay within the same period by playing a work by one of Lalo’s contemporaries, SaintSaens. This is the Cello Concerto in A minor, written in 1872. It has three movements, and the soloist commands the moods of the work from the opening bars to the final cadence. There is little argument or jostling for the dominant position between the soloist and the orchestra. Construction is unusual—a large scale sonata form, with a lighter movement sandwiched between the two outer movements. Thus the last movement is in effect a recapitulation of the first movement. The programme will open with the Overture to the “Marriage of Figaro,” by Mozart This overture, which .eflects the gaiety, and good humour of the opera, is full of life from the brisk opening bars to the lively coda. The play combines an unusual amount of vigorous action on the stage with a background of social and political satire, and it is as well to keep this in mind when listening to this overture. The main work in the i programme is the fourth I Symphony of Brahms, prob- ; ably his most popular today This work was at one time regarded as difficult for the average audience, because of hidden conflicts within the work. For instance, the first movement shows a conflict between the two moods generated by the subjects, and the following andante shows a conflict between two key centres. The finale is a massive set of variations on a ground. Brahms displays his mastery by moulding 30 variations into a broad, flowing movement A contemporary work on the programme will be the Funeral Music for String Orchestra by the Polish com-

iposer, Lutoslawski, written in 1958 and dedicated to the I memory of Bartok. Although this work is 12 tone, and is therefore strictly constructed, it has an intense emotional impact. Lutoslawski explores to the full many striking contrasts in string colour, both in the new techniques he uses and in.the way he combines these colours.