Musical match made in heaven

Christopher’s Classics: Diedre Irons & NZSO Principals, The Piano, May 23

This concert was very special indeed. The combination of Diedre Irons with three NZSO string principals (Vesa-Matti Leppanen, Julia Joyce and Andrew Joyce) was a match made in heaven. The spontaneous standing ovation at the end of the concert showed genuine appreciation of truly exceptional performances.

Irons has suggested that the fiendishly difficult piano part in Schubert’s Adagio and Rondo Concertante is the reason for its infrequent performances. But actually, although the piece has all Schubert’s stylistic hallmarks, it contains not a single really memorable idea. But what a performance! I found myself chuckling at the almost humorous audacity of the score, which all four musicians brought out fully, holding nothing back. Irons was certainly the star of this show with robust and energetic playing.

If Mahler’s Quartet in A Minor is usually dismissed as juvenilia, this performance made the strongest possible case for it. This was a hugely enjoyable interpretation with superb ensemble-work, making the most of every tonal and dynamic contrast. It was preceded by an equally convincing performance of Schnittke’s take on the fragment of a Scherzo that Mahler also intended for his quartet. Whatever Schnittke’s intention, the movement sounds like frustration, perhaps even distress, at the lack of development in Mahler’s tantalisingly skeletal fragment. He seems to be wrestling with shards of ideas that won’t fit together, until he allows Mahler’s original fragment to stand provokingly alone. Following this with Mahler’s fully completed movement seemed the perfect programming solution. Simply brilliant.

But the performance of the Brahms’ Piano Quartet in G Minor in the second-half of this concert was on an even higher level. Unity of style, ensemble, virtuosity, technique and musicianship made this performance extraordinarily charismatic and inspiring. I have never heard the first movement played with such expressive impact and variety. And the tonal quality of all four instruments was consistently gorgeous throughout the work.

The performance was full of delights: Irons’ magical lightness of touch in the coda of the Intermezzo was simply breathtaking, and the aweinspiring and faultless virtuosity, along with tonal variety from all four musicians in the final Rondo, brought an emotional clout that had not previously struck me in this movement.

So, a night of extraordinary music-making that I know will live long in my memory. – Tony Ryan