Reviewed by Ewart Shaw, Saturday 26th May 2018.
The story goes that Beethoven dedicated his third symphony to Napoleon but, when Napoleon declared himself emperor, the furious composer ripped out the title page and renamed the work Eroica, Heroic.
There's a strong case for renaming his fifth piano concerto in the same manner, though the heroism of the music is of a different nature. In the case of the
Elder Conservatorium performance, the soloist, young Honours student, Simon Pazos Quintana, showed daring, allied to a phenomenal right-hand technique, in his first performance of this work which, I'm reliably informed, he started learning after he was scheduled to play it. His teachers showed confidence, based on experience. It was a mature and impressive performance.
The first movement, marked Allegro, begins with a series of rippling passages in the right hand and, so often in that movement, the right hand is delivering filigree patterns up into the higher reaches of the keyboard, while the orchestra frequently carries the main themes of the movement. It has a carefree aspect which disguises the technical challenge of maintaining an equity of rhythm.
Don't expect me to say much about the second movement. When the strings began the opening bars, my mind shifts into nspace, a place of complete surrender, and here the collaboration between pianist, orchestra, and conductor,
James Lowe, was magical. It's one of the most beautiful things Beethoven wrote and marks a lyrical highpoint in Romantic music. It leads into the third movement, where Beethoven thunders out a message of personal confidence, brimming with energy and humour. I may be deaf, grumpy, and lonely, but in me, there is love and brightness of heart. There's still the rippling movement of the right hand up and down the keyboard but, now, some insistence in the left hand, and a moment just before the end, when the piano and the orchestra pause for a moment and begin the run-up to the wonderful finale.
Simon Pazo Quintana wiped the sweat from his brow after his final bars. The audience cheered.
The second work on the program was Scheherazade, a musical interpretation of the some of the tales of the one thousand and one nights when princess Scheherezade kept herself alive and her husband intrigued with stories of magical adventure. The first movement features the familiar figure of Sinbad aboard his ship, which is wrecked in the final movement and, while each movement bears a fable title, the work is more a celebration of oriental themes in Rimsky-Korsakoff's wonderful use of colour and instrumental texture. The sound may have been inspired by the Naval bands that he supervised, but the string writing is so supple and inviting, the woodwind and brass so exotic, and the percussion so dramatic, that the work flies along, like an enchanted vessel of treasures. Nicholas Lowe and the orchestra revelled in the work. Anna Freer led the orchestra and to her was entrusted the violin solo role, part narrator, part commentator, part skylark, played convincingly.
After the concert, there was a brief and intriguing taste of the work of the Conservatorium's new music ensemble, the Elder Music Lab. Luke Dollman invited us to stay back, and I didn't need the inducement of free wine. We were promised music of the north, and I expected surprises.
Surprise number one was the reappearance of Simon Pazos Quintana accompanying Elizabeth McCall in Hvolf by leading Icelandic composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir. The title translates, at least on my computer, as Upside Down. It's a bleak piece, enigmatic, and Simon Pazos Quintana should have been lying down somewhere quiet, shoulders massaged and grapes hand fed.
Surprise number two. Anna Freer joined the ensemble for Matthew Whittall's Negative Space, a work of interesting texture that I'd love to hear again. The northern theme reappeared with Callum Goodhand's deft performance of God of the Northern Forest, by Philip Houghton, and the very brief, but rewarding, post-concert concert closed with Nostalgiam, by Finnish composer Lotta Wennakoski. Andrew Groch conducted the ensemble.
My imperial weekend continued on the Sunday with a performance of Caligula by Camus staged by Red
Phoenix Theatre. We're a very lucky town.
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