Capital Times, Wednesday 15 September, 2004.
Really Russian NGC Wellington Sinfonia
Conductor: James Sedares
Soloist: Marat Bisengaliev (violin)
Town Hall, Sep 3
Reviewed by Garth Wilshere
IT was pleasing to see such a large audience for this imaginatively programmed concert of Russian music by the NGC Wellington Sinfonia under its principal guest conductor, American James Sedares.
The Festive Overture by Shostakovich was a vibrant and rousing opener with characterful and exciting brass and good cohesion in strings and winds.
Violinist Marat Bisengaliev, born in Kazakhstan, brought a wonderful authenticity to the Violin Concerto in D minorby Khachaturian. His playing has great fire, grit and passion allied to formidable technique -along with subtlety and eloquence when required - making for a captivating, involving performance.
This is an unusual, interesting work and it is hard to imagine a better performance than this, or a stronger modern day advocate than Bisengaliev, with excellent playing and support from the Sinfonia and Sedares making for a most satisfying musical experience.
An encore, a virtuosically played arrangement for violin of Asturias by Albeniz, completed the first half.
Rachmaninov's Symphonic Dances is a fantastic work, complex and orchestrally difficult to carry off, with hints irony in the rhythms that are particularly appealing. The piece was given a fine reading by conductor and orchestra.
At times we missed some extra weight, depth and bite in the strings but the playing itself was not in question, and the feel of the work was well conveyed.
Brass and percussion relished their opportuni¬ties, and winds were good. Although I would have liked a bit more character and piquancy from the players, the overall effect was tremendously exhilarating, with Sedares once again directing a great Sinfonia concert.
IT'S a big responsibility being someone else, says Vaughan Slinn.
Slinn is portraying well-known Sydney drag queen Joyce Maynge in the Toi Whakaari Go Solo season. He feels the responsibility to be true to the real person behind the character because glamorous Joyce was a university friend-called Shane.
"Because I care about him so much I want to honour him. It feels like a responsibility," Slinn says.
"A lot of me is quite fearful about stepping into his shoes because he's so good at what he does."
Curiously, Shane and Joyce reacted differently to being the subject of a monologue, Slinn says.
"When he was Joyce and he was talking to me, he loved the attention, he loved me taking footage of him. But when he was Shane he hated it, he didn't like it at all.
"I needed to be careful because I didn't want to do anything that would hurt him. That's why I created a character that's not him really, that's based around him."
For Go Solo, students had to research a New Zealand or Pacific personality they felt pas¬sionate about and devise a 15-20 minute solo piece. Slinn's research consisted of living with IViaynge in Sydney and hitting the nightlife.
"I got to be in quite an intimate space with him. Seeing the transformation from Shane to Joyce was always amazing because he got much faster and much louder and more confi¬dent. It was really interesting because when he put on that makeup it was like a liberation."
Other characters portrayed in the season in¬clude rapper MC Tali, tattooist Su'a Suluape Paulo II, and former All Black Wayne Shelford.
Go Solo, Te Whaea: National Dance and Drama Centre, to Sept 19.
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