Sinfonia shows how it's done
NGC Wellington Sinfonia
conducted by James Sedares with Marat
Bisengaliev (violin); music by
Shostakovich, Khachaturian and
Rachmaninov
Town Hall, September 3
REVIEWED BY: John Button
THE NGC Wellington Sinfonia will be taking this programme, as part of the NZSO's concert season, for its concerts in Napier and Taupo, so the NZSO could look to the programming, advertising and promotion as a model of what it might do.
The NZSO's recent efforts have been somewhat dull — look at the advertising for the recent Birds of Fire concert — and do not compare with the Sinfonia's fine efforts here.
And, clearly, the Sinfonia's efforts paid off. There was a comfortably large audience, which was rewarded with fine playing of a cogent programme. Under the heading "Really Russian", this programme drew superbly vital playing from the players, and the fine American James Sedares' conducting was extremely idiomatic and shrewdly gauged.
The Sinfonia is a much smaller orchestra than any of the composers intended for their works, yet the reduced weight of sound from the strings hardly ever seemed to matter.
Shostakovich's brief Festive Overture was suitably ebullient, and the Khachaturian Violin Concerto produced playing of sharp precision to offset a lack of opulence. But the Concerto is all about the soloist. It might not be a substantial work, but it is immensely entertaining in its exotic way, and Kazakhstan player Marat Bisengaliev is, surely, the work's ideal interpreter. His fiery, virtuosic playing was in the tradition of the late Leonid Kogan. It is hard to imagine anyone else playing the work.
The second half featured the progamme's finest work, Rachmaninov's last orchestral work. The Symphonic Dances break no new ground, but the superb use of melody, rhythm and marvellous orchestration has them figuring more in programmes.
Rachmaninov wrote this with the Philadelphia Orchestra in mind, so the lack of string weight meant that some moments made less impact, but, still, it was a fine, imposing performance and a fitting end to a superbly entertaining concert.
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