C.S.O. in concert

Press, 21 April 1986, Page 4

C.S.O. in concert

Christchurch Symphony Orchestra, Fifth Subscription Concert, with Monique Duphil (piano), conducted by John Curro. Town Hall Auditorium, Saturday, April 19, at 8 p.m. Reviewed by Roger Flury.

In its latest series of concerts, the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra has scaled quite a few musical peaks. Eyebrows may have been raised over the ambitious repertoire, but on the whole the challenges have been met with playing that is almost always competent, and occasionally inspired. It was a pleasure to attend a concert without having to endure an under-rehearsed overture or some other pro-gramme-filler. Beethoven’s “Emperor” Piano concerto and Berlioz’s “Symphonic Fantastique” provided two very substantial courses which should have been enjoyed by a capacity house. The number of empty seats at a concert of this calibre was scandalous in a city which prides itself on itscultural achievements. The concerto soloist, Monique Duphil, must be the pianist of a conductor’s dreams. Her playing is technically brilliant, and her no-nonsense approach to the work aroused similarly disciplined support from the orchestra.

Ms Duphil took a brisk view of the first movement which I felt diminished the grandeur a little, but her musical intentions were always crys-tal-clear, and there was certainly no lack of poetry in her interpretation. The atmosphere of the slow movement was sustained with beautifully controlled playing accompanied most sensitively by the strings, and the finale set off like a rocket with an excitement which never faltered.

This was an outstanding performance that deserved an ovation. Ms Duphil had to settle for warm applause. Only nineteen years separated the premieres of the “Emperor” concerto and the “Symphonie Fantastique” but they inhabit totally different worlds. Berlioz presented his bewildered audience with a new aural experience in which the orchestral palette was used with the seeming lack of restraint of a Delacroix. Romanticism had been born in the concert hall.

The symphony is a huge, sprawling work in spite of its clearly defined narrative element The main challenge of performing such a work lies not just in mastering the technical difficulties, but in coming to terms with the intellectual demands. The orchestra

responded well to the economical direction of its principal guest conductor, John Curro. The careful tempi enabled the work to hang together, providing a musically secure reading, but the unfortunate side-effect was that most of the passion, colour and intensity was drained from the score. There was plenty of noise in the March and the Witches’ Sabbath, for example, but the sinister nightmarish quality was missing.

There were some fine individual contributions from the woodwind section, particularly from the clarinet and cor anglais in the Pastoral Scene. The brass section offered some fearless playing, but I find that the acoustics of the auditorium surrounds the string section with a halo of silky sound which takes the bite out of their playing.

Given more time, I think, the performers would have plumbed the greater depths which undeniably exist in the work. More familiarity would have given just that degree of abandon in the playing which would have raised the temperature a few degrees. As it was, the emphasis remained firmly on the “Symphonie” rather than the “Fan-tastiq-je.”