Beethoven as he should be heard

After hearing an early performance of the Seventh Symphony, a critic pronounced that Beethoven was obviously a man ‘‘ripe for the madhouse’’.

His outraged confusion was ignited by music which, in 1814, blew everything else out of the water. Two centuries later, ‘‘the Seventh’’ has lost nothing of its ferocious, almost demonic, energy and ability to engage an audience.

On Thursday night conductor Edo de Waart and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra gave a truly outstanding performance of Beethoven’s masterwork. From the sweeping vistas of the first movement, to the finale’s frenetic whirligig, the NZSO didn’t put a foot wrong. This was Beethoven as he should be heard, stripped of all musicological pretensions and respectful worship to reveal the music’s revolutionary character. The NZSO and de Waart then fine-tuned the work to provide an extroverted, rumbustious and youthful experience, but one which remained totally disciplined.

The evening’s programme was launched with an appropriately puckish performance of Felix Mendelssohn’s enduring – and endearing – overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream. From the delicate shimmering cords of the opening bars to the hearty braying of a transformed Bottom and a suitably enchanted ending, it grabbed the music and flew.

The mood shifted when the orchestra was joined by Dutch pianist Ronald Brautigam to perform Mozart’s Piano Concerto No 24 in C minor. A lesser soloist would be totally dominated by the orchestra, but throughout his powerful and polished interpretation, Brautigam didn’t yield a millimetre in a vibrant performance which satisfied both emotionally and musically.