NZSO’s Emperor – Beethoven rules

Pianist Paul Lewis - “…extrovert brilliance and relaxed confidence. “

“We don’t need to say much about that,” said Brazilian conductor Eduardo Strausser, skipping over the centrepiece of the programme, Beethoven’s 5th Piano Concerto, “Emperor”, while briefly introducing the concert from the podium. He was right. Everything that needed to be said was communicated in a stunning performance by the NZSO with star British pianist Paul Lewis.

From the opening piano flourishes, Lewis’s performance exuded both extrovert brilliance and relaxed confidence.  His technique is effortless, the demanding solo part sounding easy in extended octave and scalic passages, contrasted with delicacy and flexibility in expressive moments. Lewis is all about the music, both serving and revelling in Beethoven’s glorious writing.

Conductor, orchestra and soloist brought a loving accord to their interpretation.  The charismatic Strausser, sensitive and empathetic in accompaniment, achieved fine orchestral balance and clarity, the winds nicely positioned in the texture and the work well-paced with good forward impetus. After the pianist’s commanding ending of the heroic first movement, the hushed singing of the strings and liquid trilling piano melody in the second created magical contrasts. The ‘attacca’ transition to the third movement, a practice introduced by Beethoven, was a model of collaborative musicianship.

Conductor Eduardo Strausser

.”…sensitive and empathetic”

Photo credit: Charles Brooks

Lewis’s Beethoven credentials are well-established. The first pianist to play all five of the master’s concertos in a single season at the BBC Proms, he has also recorded the concertos and all 32 piano sonatas in acclaimed releases. Of the “Emperor”, he recalls listening to it as a child. “I remember thinking, ‘This is proper music!’ I didn’t know why that was, but I think it’s the completeness and the logic of the journey that came through.” Certainly, the concerto made perfect and thrilling sense in this convincing conversation between pianist and orchestra.

Cento by New Zealand composer Ross Harris provided a light-hearted overture to the concert. Commissioned in 2005 by the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra to mark its 25th anniversary, the work celebrates many works from the orchestral canon in a clever patchwork both amusing and occasionally darkly serious.

Composer Ross Harris

“…fine orchestration and clever stitching in Cento.”

Photo credit: Gareth Watkins

A French horn player, Harris employed his fine orchestration skills to solve the knotty puzzle of Cento – stitching together a disparate range of orchestral excerpts while maintaining original keys and rhythms. For the listener, Cento can be a musical guessing game – Ravel’s Bolero and Gershwin’s Summertime are easy to spot, but I was more struck by the sinister rhythmic power of Stravinsky’s Rite emerging repeatedly from the complex texture.

Schumann’s 2nd Symphony in C major completed the programme. It’s a work full of restless energy and forward drive, and although the ensemble seemed less sure and settled than it was in the Beethoven, in some ways that is the nature of the composition itself. Strausser took much of it at pace with a dancing style, the strings busy and capable, the musicality of the wind section shining again, particularly in the 3rd movement where they carried the emotional weight with melodious ease. Brass and timpani also impressed in the finale and the work finished in triumphant spirit.

Beethoven, it must be said, is a hard act to follow and perhaps it is inevitable that the Schumann Symphony should pale a little in comparison. Three years ago, in celebration of Beethoven’s 250th birthday, I wrote about this musical colossus of the 19th century, and why we never tire of hearing his music. You can read that birthday tribute here.

Ludwig van Beethoven

“…a hard act to follow.”

The NZSO 2023 season began a little later than usual but they’re settling into it now. There’s a happy sense of “getting back to normal”, with pre-concert talks, good-sized audiences, international artists, live broadcasts and livestreams of concerts. With Lewis and Strausser, the Orchestra is taking three programmes featuring all Beethoven’s piano concertos to Tauranga and Christchurch this week.

NZSO Immerse: ‘Orpheus’, ‘Reverence’, ‘Emperor’. Beethoven’s Piano Concertos, with Eduardo Strausser (conductor) and Paul Lewis (piano). May 11-21, 2023. More information and tickets for Christchurch concerts here.