NZSO
Garth Wilshere
New Zealand Symphony Orchestra
Conductor: Pietari Inkinen
Michael Fowler Centre, June 25
Reviewed by Garth Wilshere
THIS programme interestingly consisted of some of the many pieces based on or inspired by Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.
Conductor and Music Director Pietari Inkinen is excellent in Tchaikovsky and in the “Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture he seemed especially fired up.This was a brilliant performance with Inkinen and the orchestra in their element. The NZSO are incomparable in this repertoire in New Zealand and I wouldn’t want to hear this from anyone else here. Everything was in its place, from rich and lustrous strings through to winds, brass and percussion.
The temperature went down a bit though in the excerpts from Berlioz’s Romeo and Juliet. Inkinen didn’t quite achieve the right sound and balance in Berlioz which, though well played, didn’t quite fire. The rhythms didn’t seem ‘sprung’ enough and it all seemed a little to deliberate, although the subtle and delicate Queen Mab Scherzo with exquisite pianissimos was wonderfully caught.
From one of the greatest of ballet scores, Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet, we heard a fascinating selection made by Inkinen from the first two Suites.
The orchestra was marvelous in this, rich and sonorous with pulse and momentum, again, in their element. The concert proved a perfect farewell to Principal Horn, Ed Allen, who came here to that position from Utah in 1983 and retires after this concert. His presence in the horn section will be sorely missed.
Conductor: Pietari Inkinen
Michael Fowler Centre, June 25
Reviewed by Garth Wilshere
THIS programme interestingly consisted of some of the many pieces based on or inspired by Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.
Conductor and Music Director Pietari Inkinen is excellent in Tchaikovsky and in the “Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture he seemed especially fired up.This was a brilliant performance with Inkinen and the orchestra in their element. The NZSO are incomparable in this repertoire in New Zealand and I wouldn’t want to hear this from anyone else here. Everything was in its place, from rich and lustrous strings through to winds, brass and percussion.
The temperature went down a bit though in the excerpts from Berlioz’s Romeo and Juliet. Inkinen didn’t quite achieve the right sound and balance in Berlioz which, though well played, didn’t quite fire. The rhythms didn’t seem ‘sprung’ enough and it all seemed a little to deliberate, although the subtle and delicate Queen Mab Scherzo with exquisite pianissimos was wonderfully caught.
From one of the greatest of ballet scores, Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet, we heard a fascinating selection made by Inkinen from the first two Suites.
The orchestra was marvelous in this, rich and sonorous with pulse and momentum, again, in their element. The concert proved a perfect farewell to Principal Horn, Ed Allen, who came here to that position from Utah in 1983 and retires after this concert. His presence in the horn section will be sorely missed.
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