National orchestra deserved full house

Press, 20 October 1980, Page 6

National orchestra deserved full house

By

PHILIP NORMAN

The fare offered by the National Symphony Orv chestra under Sir Charles I Groves on Saturday evening should have- been sufficient t&llure even the most tele-vision-oriented worm out of the woodwork for an excursion to the Town Hall. In ■ spite of a better-than-usual .attendance, one wonders how long the National Orchestra can continue its generous scheduling of concerts in .Christchurch in the face ■ of. less-than-full houses.

The programme opened with an earjy Berlioz orchestral work, lhe overture to his unfinished opera, “Les Francs-Juges.” A dark and sombre work, speaking of judgments of- death for heresy and witchcraft, it exploits a wide range.of foreboding colours that - were shaded well- by ..the... orchestra, ! particularly by a grim and determined brass section. The overture also had some very testing string

writing, as exemplified in the exposed spiccato cello entry, in which the section acquitted itself admirably. ,

The soloist in Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 3 was the New : Zealander, David James, whose assurance and commanding technique showed him to be the master of this very demanding concerto. The performance was not without blemish, however, most noticeably in the early stages of the first movement where the piano was overpowered by the enthusiasms of the accompaniment and where soloist and orchestra lacked co-ordination in overlapping entries'. These blemishes vanished? in the face of the broad sweep of Rachmaninov’s- expansive string melodies ? underscored: ?by <th® sparkling piano ?!? configurations. Here was Rachmaninov interpreted with meticulous attention to stylistic considerations, <! resulting in a most , satisfying'and memorable performance.

Only the most granite-fea-tured concert-goer could claim immunity to the charms of Elgar’s “Enigma Variations.” It is the music of the British bulldog, effused with-the spirit of compulsory games, and energised with the’ bubbles of pink lemonade. It; \yas in this work that' the full impact of the dignified and gracious conducting of Sir Charles could.be heard. Nimrod variation at a satisfyingly faster-than-funereal tempo; Ysobel and B.G.N. variations with finely intoned string playing, . particularly. the solo viola and cello, work; the tightly controlled orchestral wrath of W.M/B.f the lyrical clarinet work and the hiss of the timpqni surf in Lady Mary Lygon's; variation; and the finely; ‘delineated orchestral complexities of the self-por-trait E.D.U.- variation all characterised Sir Charles’s performance ?pf this ppbla music.