Sisters dazzle with their virtuosity
Mozart & Mahler. New Zealand Symphony Orchestra conducted by Edo de Waart, with Christina and Michelle Naughton (duo pianists). Michael Fowler Centre, April 6.
During the reigns of the musical directors, James Judd, Pietari Inkinen and, now, Edo de Waart we have been treated to a great deal of the music of Gustav Mahler, to the point where the NZSO has become extraordinarily comfortable with his demanding sound world.
And nowhere has this been better demonstrated than in this riveting performance of the Fifth Symphony.
Nearly seven years ago, a young Pietari Inkinen showed remarkable assurance in a very fine performance of the work, and here the much more experienced Edo de Waart conducted a similarly imposing performance of the work. In fact, the two performances were, in a great many respects, remarkably similar – I had listened to a recording of the Inkinen performance before this concert and the playing was, in both cases, wonderfully dynamic and polished.
Of course, there were differences – a slightly more flowing Adagietto from de Waart, a hint more bite in the Finale from Inkinen – but what wonderful Mahler conducting from both. In the end though, a lifetime’s experience of living in Mahler’s world might just have won the day for the Dutchman.
The first-half introduced us to the young American duo pianists, the Naughton sisters, and their performance of Mozart’s Concerto for Two Pianos in E flat K.365 showed an uncanny precision and certainty.
Maybe the first movement was a hint mechanical, but the slow movement and finale were a wonderful combination of poetic freedom and precision.
But best of all was the encore – variations on Paganini’s famous 24th Caprice, in which the sisters let their hair down with playing of dazzling virtuosity. – John Button