Bellincampi, APO at riveting best

Who might have thought that second-tier Beethoven and a solid hour of Bruckner would attract the impressive numbers drawn to Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra’s Beethoven’s Triple concert?

That it did is a testament to the APO and charismatic music director Giordano Bellincampi.

Beethoven’s Triple Concerto is a frustrating score, its two outer movements cheerfully sacrificing musical substance for pretty decoration but a shortcoming that energised young soloists almost made one overlook.

Tianwa Yang, Gabriel Schwabe and Nicholas Rimmer were quite the team; Schwabe particularly earcatching

Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra – Beethoven’s Triple in his unforgiving cello part, eloquently introducing each movement. The best moments came in the Largo, allowing the soloists to enchant us as a piano trio.

Bellincampi forged an almost tangible communion between musicians and listeners, immersing us in Bruckner’s singular world.

It was a world that ensnared us, as passionate cellos and violas cast their long, winding song trail, eventually sharing the space with magnificent brass outbursts that might well have demolished the doors of Wagner’s Valhalla.

Wagner’s spirit hangs above this symphony, especially in its Adagio, written while the older composer was dying. Here, its dark emotional terrain and shifting harmonies were lustrously laid out by a quartet of Wagner tubas, and an all-important sense of emotional intimacy was never sacrificed.

Bellincampi paused significantly before the wild, rustic scherzo and presented a finale to end all finales. Bruckner’s mercurial shifts of tone and texture were illuminated to perfection.

Classical review