NZSO Pictures at an Exhibition: opening the season with a sense of occasion

The NZSO with soloist Emily Beynon and conductor Gemma New

Photo credit: Phoebe Tuxford/NZSO

The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra's recent concert "Pictures at an Exhibition" achieved a great sense of occasion. For the first full orchestra concert of the year in the Michael Fowler Centre, after a hiatus of more than three months, a well-constructed programme included a new concerto with a starry international soloist, a well-loved New Zealand work and Ravel's ever-popular orchestration of Mussorgsky's Pictures. And to add to the event, there was a warm on-stage farewell for a long-serving orchestral member, trumpeter Cheryl Hollinger, and even a specially-designed outfit for the Orchestra's Principal Conductor Gemma New.

When the NZSO 2025 season was announced last year, New told me this programme was nostalgic for her, bringing her full circle to her teenage love of orchestral music as a youth orchestra member. Both Gareth Farr's From the Depths Sound the Great Sea Gongs and Mussorgsky's Pictures are works that evoke happy memories for her.

Farr's Sea Gongs has been performed frequently since it was written to mark the NZSO's 50th anniversary in 1996. For this concert we heard Part 1 of the work, The Invocation of the Sea. It's stirring music, gentle at first, then building to percussion-heavy, sometimes thunderous effects. There's a splendid section evoking Pacific drumming and the influences of Indonesian gamelan and Japanese taiko also lurk under the watery surface. New and the orchestra performed the work with pace and precision; it offered a good work-out for the whole ensemble, especially a large and cohesive percussion section, and the audience loved it.

French composer Guillaume Connesson’s Concerto No 2 for Flute and Orchestra was written for the concert’s soloist, Welsh-born Emily Beynon, principal flutist with the Concertgebouw Orchestra of the Netherlands. Called Danses Concertantes, the seven-movement dance suite was jointly commissioned by four orchestras, the Concertgebouw, the Finnish Tapiola Sinfonietta, France's leading symphony orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris, and the NZSO. The Wellington performance was the first, the world premiere, with the composer present.

Beynon took the stage in a red velvet suit over a sparkly top, her gold flute adding to her glowing stage presence. Written for a classical-sized orchestra, the suite has four fast movements alternating with three slow ones. The faster dances have jazzy or spiky rhythms, rock ‘n roll bass lines, lush Hollywood string tunes and joyous forward momentum. As soloist, Beynon revealed at once both her dazzling facility and a lovely big clear flute sound in nice exchanges between soloist and orchestra.

Perhaps the most interesting music is found in the three contrasting slow movements. The second movement, ‘Thème’, is lovely, measured and romantic, Beynon’s flute floating above rocking French-flavoured harmonies. Towards the end, two orchestral flutes join gracefully with the soloist in a gentle dance.

Movements four and six are variations on the ‘theme’ of the second. The ‘Tango macabre’, the centre of the work, locates the flutist as a character in a dark story of drama and intrigue, a romantic movie vibe with jazzy accompaniment, wry humour in lugubrious lower strings. Finally, the wistful flute fades out, accompanied by winds.

The composer has nice control of his textures in the sixth movement, all colours vivid, and the soloist shining through. A big pensive flute melody throbs and soars before drifting off, and the work builds in energy and brightness in the seventh dance, the flute in flight against the orchestra. The harmonies create a mood that is perhaps a little corny, but the work ends, as the composer suggests, with “an explosion of joy”.

Composer Guillaume Connesson, soloist Emily Beynon and conductor Gemma New after the world premiere of Connesson’s Concerto No 2 for Flute and Orchestra: Danses Concertantes

Photo credit: Phoebe Tuxford/NZSO

Beynon has suggested the concerto could have been written by Ravel, if he were still composing. Certainly, French composers have often painted with orchestral timbres and Ravel’s famous orchestration of Mussorgsky’s solo piano work, Pictures at an Exhibition, is possibly better known and more often performed than the original. 

It was a great choice for this programme, showing off the wonderful soloists within the NZSO, some remarkable brass and wind playing, and also New’s exceptional skills on the podium. She brought terrific variety to the work and a greater emotional depth and darkness than we sometimes hear.

Mussorgsky composed Pictures as a tribute to his friend, the artist Victor Hartmann, who had died aged just 39. The famous ‘Promenade’, which opens the work and provides an interlude between sections, depicts an observer walking around an exhibition of Hartmann’s paintings.

This performance had well-chosen tempi, revealing the work’s great poignancy, and allowing us to appreciate the colours Ravel has added to Mussorgsky’s music. New achieved a powerful legato in the melodic lines and an intense continuity in the textures, building to shattering emotional climaxes. These are not “pretty pictures”, although there are lighter contrasts, as in the airy sprightliness of the ‘Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks’.

NZSO Principal Conductor Gemma New

“…impeccable timing, achieving maximum impact, drama and grandeur.”

Photo credit: NZSO

Ravel’s orchestral genius is on full display, and this performance exploited his colours with flair and clarity - the marvellously powerful unison strings, for instance, or brilliant timbres like muted trumpet and characterful alto saxophone.  New handled transitions expertly, and her timing was impeccable, achieving maximum impact, drama and grandeur.

In Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition we may be promenading around a gallery, but it’s a mighty musical journey, eventually passing the terrifying climax of Baba Yaga’s ‘Hut on Chicken’s Legs’ to arrive at the work’s final section, the famous ‘Great Gate of Kiev’. Hartmann had won a competition with his design for this edifice, but died before it could be built. Mussorgsky’s magnificent composition was inspired by the design, not an actual gate.

How could we not think of Russia, Ukraine and Europe as solemn bells tolled and the music evoked a procession of chanting priests? Brass instruments soared, timpani pounded and the full orchestra participated in this glorious conclusion, earning an enthusiastic ovation for a splendid start to the NZSO’s main season.

NZSO ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’ Gemma New (conductor) Emily Beynon (flute) music by Gareth Farr, Guillaume Connesson and Mussorgsky/Ravel. Wellington, March 27, 2025.

You can read my review of a recent album by pianist Somi Kim with Mussorgsky’s original piano version of Pictures at an Exhibition here and my most recent profile of Gemma New here