Beethoven 9
After last night's performance of Beethoven's 9th I am glad that my reservations about the Sinfonia were completely unfounded! I hadn't bought a programme so didn't know what to expect of the first half, and was thus rather excited when the first few chords of the Don Giovanni ouverture sounded, prompting me to elbow my neighbour rather excitedly and say something completely unintelligible but which if translated into English would have meant "oh fantastic, I really do like this ouverture, what a pleasant surprise."
This was followed by a selection of arias from our four Beethoven 9 soloists, Viktoriya Dodoka, Helen Medlyn (resplendent in fantastic orange gown!), Keith Lewis and David Thelander. These ranged from pleasant without overwhelming the senses, to being almost sublime. Although my one criticism would be that they were for the most part over-acted in terms of being on a concert stage. Nonetheless it was an enjoyable first half, and I particularly enjoyed Keith's Dalla sua pace.
The Sinfonia was definitely in fine form for the Beethoven, and it was nice to see the Town Hall at almost full capacity. It was also heartening to see quite a large number of young people in the audience who are not musicians! Marc conducted sans score, and his obvious passion was apparent in his very involved conducting and his joyous singing along with the chorus in the last movement. I only wish I had been able to see his facial expressions! The soloists had gorgeous ensemble singing, voices bowing in and out of prominence according to their melodic/harmonic function, and i did like Thelander's intial "Freude...."
The scherzo second movement is one of my favourites, and i thought the 2nd violins and violas were an asbolute credit to themselves in the staggered fugal like entries. The celli in the last movement had beautiful pianoissimo tone and their dialogue with the rest of the orchestra really did feel like it was saying something. The other outstanding section that i thoroughly enjoyed was the winds; the bassoons were fantastic! And that's saying something, coming from a soprano who doesn't usually pay woodwind much more than lip service! The horns had creative intonation at one or two moments, but it wasn't really enough to mar such an impassioned performance - we need more music like this in Dunedin!
I left feeling uplifted, but that's what one expects of Beethoven and Schiller.
Deine,
Tochter aus Elysium
This was followed by a selection of arias from our four Beethoven 9 soloists, Viktoriya Dodoka, Helen Medlyn (resplendent in fantastic orange gown!), Keith Lewis and David Thelander. These ranged from pleasant without overwhelming the senses, to being almost sublime. Although my one criticism would be that they were for the most part over-acted in terms of being on a concert stage. Nonetheless it was an enjoyable first half, and I particularly enjoyed Keith's Dalla sua pace.
The Sinfonia was definitely in fine form for the Beethoven, and it was nice to see the Town Hall at almost full capacity. It was also heartening to see quite a large number of young people in the audience who are not musicians! Marc conducted sans score, and his obvious passion was apparent in his very involved conducting and his joyous singing along with the chorus in the last movement. I only wish I had been able to see his facial expressions! The soloists had gorgeous ensemble singing, voices bowing in and out of prominence according to their melodic/harmonic function, and i did like Thelander's intial "Freude...."
The scherzo second movement is one of my favourites, and i thought the 2nd violins and violas were an asbolute credit to themselves in the staggered fugal like entries. The celli in the last movement had beautiful pianoissimo tone and their dialogue with the rest of the orchestra really did feel like it was saying something. The other outstanding section that i thoroughly enjoyed was the winds; the bassoons were fantastic! And that's saying something, coming from a soprano who doesn't usually pay woodwind much more than lip service! The horns had creative intonation at one or two moments, but it wasn't really enough to mar such an impassioned performance - we need more music like this in Dunedin!
I left feeling uplifted, but that's what one expects of Beethoven and Schiller.
Deine,
Tochter aus Elysium
posted by Unknown at 1:21 PM
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