The NZSO National Youth Orchestra at the Auckland Town Hall
By William Dart, The New Zealand Herald, August 27, 2002
Posted: 2002-08-30 14:59:18
Benjamin Zander has a special gift. It showed on the faces of the
members of the NZSO National Youth Orchestra - and in their
music-making.
Here was the cream of our young musicians, the orchestral players of
tomorrow, immersed in the testing worlds of Ives, Stravinsky and Brahms,
and emerging victorious.
Zander is a kindly, avuncular presence on the podium. This man would
make even the most sceptical believe that Charles Ives' idiosyncratic
works have a God-given rightness to them..
Discussing the American composer's Three Places in New England, he had
us chanting rhythms and he himself unselfconsciously sang us a Stephen
Foster tune in a light, sentimental tenor. A discussion of the first
movement was saved for last because, I suspect, of Zander's
determination to stress Ives' political intent.
The orchestra's performance positively bristled with the energy of youth
and, after all, the rough-and-tumble marches of "Putnam's Camp" do come
from a young lad's militaristic dreams. There was the crispest of
phrasing, especially in the first piece, where it is so essential, while
the strings effortlessly laid out a misty and mysterious Housatonic
River setting for Ives' final vision.
Zander and the orchestra caught the fairytale in Stravinsky's Firebird.
The opening shared the same sense of stillness as Ives' "Housatonic" but
when the villainous Kastchei took stage, all hell broke brilliantly
loose.
Brahms' Fourth Symphony would be a big ask for any orchestra after a
mere week's existence, but the students responded magnificently.
The opening Allegro non troppo pitted soaring melodies against crackling
rhythms, the Intermezzo-like slow movement put the remarkable woodwind
and horns centre stage, and the whole orchestra dazzled us in the
Scherzo. Zander pepped up the tempo here and it was a real coup;
suddenly there seemed to be a Russian connection in those relentless
patternings. The closing Chaconne thrilled with its sumptuous climaxes
but also engaged with its sense of cohesion.
There was another star on this occasion. Zander hailed our town hall as
acoustically one of the finest halls he had been in, and on this
occasion it certainly lived up to all his praise.
