Music Reviewer Garth Wilshere reflects on highlights and lowlights.
THE last weekend of concerts for the year provided two highlights of a full and impressive musical year.
We got a feast of Benjamin Britten with the innovative Britten weekend with Tudor Consort in, A Britten Christmas under Michael Stewart and Nota Bene with orchestra under guest director Michael Vinten in St Nicolas.
The year began with a new concept, the early NZSO Chinese New Year. Conducted by young Hong Kong based Perry So, the concert also gave the opportunity to hear arias from Jack Body’s opera Alley.
Inclement weather put paid to the Vector Wellington Orchestra’s hope of returning to Government House for their summer concert. A shift indoors to The Michael Fowler Centre was not quite the same.
NZSO’s Mahler Symphony Four concert with soprano Anna Leese was underwhelming and not as involved as I wanted. Not conductor Peitari Inkinen’s best or Leese’s; a surprise.
The VWO first subscription concert had some disappointments in Deidre Irons’s Mozart Piano Concerto with her and the orchestra under Marc Taddei not especially enjoyable. And the Debussy Nocturnes, with the women of Cantoris Chamber Choir having stylistic and tuning issues, was very disappointing. The concert was redeemed by Borodin’s Symphony No 2 in a performance where Taddei was energised and the whole shone.
Wellington Chamber Orchestra under Michael Vinten gave one its best concerts in a programme featuring completion of Schubert’s Symphony No. 10 and Vinten’s orchestrations of nine early Mahler Wunderhorn Songs with Linden Loader and Roger Wilson were lovely to hear.
The NZSO and Inkinen’s next essay into Mahler, his Symphony No 6 though well played, was a little cool and detached.
In his Romeo and Juliet concert the Tchaikovsky Fantasy Overture and a Prokovfiev selection from his ballet were the highlights.
Under Pinchas Steinberg the Macedonian pianist Simon Trpceski was a charming audience favourite.
One the best NZSO outings was with rising young Russian conductor Vasily Petrenko for a searing Shostakovich Symphony No 7 Leningrad and with Michael Houstoun in fine form in Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 4, it was a great night.
Their much vaunted Ode to Joy concert didn’t capture what I wanted with the male soloists disappointing me.
Brahmissmo brought a sequence of concerts in an innovative series with Inkinen generally capturing the feeling of Brahms’s music.
Their playing for a rare screening of a restored Metropolis was luminous.
The Vector Wellington Orchestra’s position is now more secure for the next few years at least with Creative New Zealand maintaining its current funding levels for now, as they continue to build and their concerts demonstrated that. Their playing was not always perfect but the September 11 “On the Transmigration of Souls” concert and their last with the outstanding mezzo Anne Sophie Von Otter certainly demonstrated commitment.
As always the playing of the National Youth Orchestra excels and under James Judd they did again, but the flashy and flamboyant young American organist Cameron Carpenter though a brilliantly talented player didn’t make the most of the traditional organ  in the Town Hall.
The NBR New Zealand Opera with baroque specialists The Lautten Compagney made Handel’s Xerxes, glow and shine assisted by two fine counter-tenors and Trelise Cooper’s opulent, regal costumes. The Cav & Pag double bill brought gritty realism in a marvellous, affecting production with brilliant soloists, outstanding chorus and some of the best playing heard from the VWO. These demonstrated where top-drawer professional productions sit in New Zealand.
The New Zealand School of Music’s presentation of Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream under Michael Vinten with brilliant young singers, and imaginatively directed by Sara Brodie was for a university production, an exceptional achievement.
The continuing popularity of lighter works such as Gilbert and Sullivan was satisfied in Wellington G & S Light opera presentation of Trial By Jury and HMS Pinafore not perfect but enjoyable. But the real lighter gem was Boutique Opera’s Tom Jones, hilarious fast-paced fun.
The Orpheus choir maintained a busy schedule with their St Matthew Passion in April and a lighter Cole Porter concert to end their year.
Chamber Music New Zealand flourished with several great concerts especially the Tasmin Little special concert, the Brentano quartet and the Eggner Trio; the NZSQ one with soprano Jenny Wollerman and the innovative Latitude 37 and The Nautilus Trio. The Wellington Chamber Music Sunday concerts maintained their quality and popularity.