Beethoven’s Triple, 28 February 2019
APO, Giordano Bellincampi – Conductor, Tianwa Yang – Violin, Gabriel Schwabe – Cello, Nicholas Rimmer – Piano
Beethoven – Triple Concerto for Violin, Cello, and Piano in C Op 56
Bruckner- Symphony No 7 in E
The APO continued this year’s Premier Series with a double bill of works by two of the Big B’s of Classical music; Beethoven and Bruckner. The Beethoven Triple Concerto is something of a rarity on concert stages while Bruckner’s epic Symphony 7 is well known and often performed. The concert made for a study in contrasts with the concerto representing the lighter side of Beethoven, while Bruckner’s sprawling symphony memorializes Richard Wagner and grapples with ideas of death and transcendence.
Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra Photo: Adrian Malloch
The three soloists gave a lively performance of the Triple Concerto. Tianwa Yang (violin) and Gabriel Schwabe (cello) had the more demanding roles and rose to them with zest and obvious enjoyment. The concerto is thought to have been written with a fifteen year old sprig of Habsburg nobility in mind. Archduke Rudolph was one of Beethoven’s piano and composition pupils and became a lifelong friend and important patron of the composer. Hence the piano part sounds good but is not technically too demanding compared to what the other soloists must play. Pianist Nicholas Rimmer seemed to enjoy his role as much as Yang and Schwabe who had the lion’s share of the flashier aspects of the concerto.
Violinist Tianwa Yang Photo: Supplied
The APO gave a suitably supportive backing role in this concerto as the trio of soloists had most of the musical action. The very short second movement was a highlight with its delicate and graceful lyricism leading without pause into a jaunty and high spirited final movement. This concerto may have been written to flatter and show off a young aristocrat’s musical abilities but this performance made a convincing enough argument for its own musical merits.
The Beethoven concerto made a pleasing hors d'oeuvres for the weighty four-course banquet that is Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7. This epic work received a suitably epic rendition from Giordano Bellincampi and the APO that was focused and intense. From the shimmering, tremolo strings and cello opening of the first movement to the roaring E Major fanfares of the Finale’s conclusion, the APO’s played with power and precision.
I find listening to Bruckner on recordings unsatisfying and I think the music needs large spaces along with the immediacy and presence of live-ness to maintain interest. The Auckland Town Hall is a fine acoustic space for his music and the musicians used it to bring out the richness and complexities of the orchestration. Rhythms were taut and crisp and the music never dragged. The central movements of the symphony were particular highlights of a strong and moving performance. The Adagio, the elegy for Wagner, was hypnotic and searing in its intensity and carried us to its shattering climax on waves of sound. The following Scherzo was an exhilarating dance that brought us back to earth from the ethereal loftiness of the Adagio. The brass and woodwind sections were in particularly fine form throughout the Bruckner and played with a zest and exactness.
This concert balanced the aristocratic music-room gentility of the Beethoven concerto with the expansive, wide open spaces of the Bruckner symphony through the fine playing of the soloists and orchestra. It also made a fine farewell to contra bassoonist Ruth Brinkman who is retiring after 38 years in the APO and who received a well-earned ovation from the audience.
