Manukau City's musical treasure

Manukua Symphony Orchestra
Genesis Energy Theatre
Telstra Clear Pacific Events Centre
Manukau City
June 20th

The Manukau Symphony Orchestra has been around for just over fifteen years and its membership ranges from professional players to a handful of school children but under the direction of conductor Uwe Grodd it has grown into a passionate orchestra and is beginning to sound like a very professional group.

Their latest concert showed them to be able to mount a truly professional event playing Dvorak’s New World Symphony as well as a new work by Anthony Ritchie.

The first work on the programme, Mozart’s overture to Il Seraglio did not offer a promising start with the strings being weak and tentative and the playing of it rather pedestrian.

It must have been their warm-up piece as the rest of the concert was a magnificent occasion.

There were two works for soloists; Weber’s Clarinet Concertino and the premiere performance of Anthony Ritchie's Piano Concerto. No 3.

Any works featuring soloists will stand or fall on the technical and musical ability of the soloist and with these two works we were introduced to two impressive players.

Clarinetist Natalie Harris who is still in her final year of a music degree at Auckland University gave a scintillating performance of the clarinet concerto. Her initial slight nervousness was replaced with a sturdy confidence and she displayed the intensity and focus of a seasoned players.

She was impeccable in her playing, and her technical ability was matched by a mature understanding of the work.

At times she soared effortlessly above the orchestra while at others times she worked with them delicately entwining the clarinet with the strings.

Emma Sayers was equally at home with the orchestra in her playing of the new piano concerto a work which combines aspects of nineteenth century classicism with twenty-first century dynamism.

Much of the work sets the precise, impressionist detail of the piano against the huge tonal waves of sound from the orchestra, simple melodies contrasting with complex constructions.

Emma Sayers gave an energetic performance crouched over the keyboard ever ready to respond to the dramatic events conjured up by the orchestra.

In much of the first movement there was a sense of the lone individual set in a dramatic landscape, facing and overcoming the elements.

The second movement with its Asian influences was by turns brutal, tender and nostalgic and saw the pianist carefully eking out each of the sparse notes to give them maximum impact.

The third movement was more of a contest between the piano and orchestra with martial music led by the drums and brass. It was an evenly matched contest with the pianist valiantly displaying resolute and expressive responses.

The major work on the programme Dvorak’s New World Symphony is considered to be the composer’s response to America and is often thought of as based on American folk songs. The central theme of “Going Home” is more likely to be a Czech folk song which was subsequently set to music, becoming a well know spiritual lament.

Far from being a response to America it is an expression of his nostalgia for his homeland. This underlines the way in which the Old World influenced the development of the new World.

As well as depicting the physical landscape of America it is a panorama of the social and intellectual transformation that the composer encountered.

Conductor Uwe Grodd tightly controlled the orchestra whcih played with great clarity, providing the range of textures and colours needed.

He guided the orchestra and the solo players through the more subtle passages of the work balancing the voluptuous parts with the whimsical and the emotional.

Next Concert

Ludwig
Conductor and Piano Soloist - Eugene Albulescu

Beethoven, Prometheus Overture
Beethoven, Piano Concerto No 1
Beethoven, A perfido (soloist Morag Atchison)
Beethoven, Symphony No 8

Genesis Energy Theatre
Telstra Clear Pacific Events Centre
August 22, 7.30pm