Music off the beaten track

Press, 24 May 1977, Page 21

Music off the beaten track

The Canterbury Orchestra’s Mozart symphony series of concerts will continue in the Town Hall on Saturday. John Snelgrove will be the soloist. He began his life in music at the age of 10 in the Sumner Silver Band, and was taught to play the coronet because his arms were not long enough for the trombone, which he preferred. His solo will be in the Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra, by Johann Nepomuk Hummel, a student of Mozart.

At the age of nine, Hummel toured Europe as a prodigy pianist. He studied composition with Haydn, among others, was a good friend of Beethoven, and was a prodigious composer. He wrote a famous instruction book, “Pianoforte Playing and Teaching.” The Mozart Symphony in this concert will be No. 39 in E flat. This is one of Mozart’s last three symphonies, which are extraordinary examples of the mature Mozart. It opens with a very dark adagio, which is followed by one of the most gentle and most charming of his allegros. This allegro is in three-four time, which in itself is quite a departure from the normal duple rhythms of opening movements in the eighteenthcentury symphonies. Probably the other best known example is the Eroica Symphony of Beethoven. The other work in this

concert is not known to have been played in New Zealand before. It is the Kammershymphonie for 15 solo instruments, Op. 9, by Arnold Schoenberg. Many concert-goers are aware of Schoenberg only as an atonal, 12-tone composer; and he did make, as a composer and teacher, many inroads into traditional musical thought and composition. However, in Opus 9 he behaves like a natural successor of Mahler and Strauss — as a romantic and dramatic composer. The Kammersymphonie, for an orchestra of two violins, viola, cello, double bass, flute, oboe, cor anglais, various clarinets, bassoon, contrabassoon, and two french horns is one of his most extraordinary works. He has written a work for 15 virtuoso players, and at the same time managed to disguise the difficulties so that the audience is aware only of the beautiful melodies and post-romantic writing. The orchestra will be conducted by its music director, Dobbs Franks, and led by Ruth Pearl. This will be the fifth concert in the orchestra’s first subscription series. The final concert of this series — on June 25 — will feature Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 in G minor, and will have John Wion, principal flautist of the New York City Opera, as soloist in Molique’s Concerto for Flute and Orchestra.