William Dart review: Auckland Philharmonia dazzles with Mozart's Jupiter Symphony finale

NZ Herald

04-05-2025

George Benjamin's 2021 transcription of three Purcell Fantasias allowed the 16th-century originals to provide their own modernisms, their volatile harmonies delicately tinted with intricate voicings and exotic colours, including Korean temple bell.
Australian recorder virtuoso Genevieve Lacey would use five different instruments in Elena Kats-Chernin's Re-Inventions, a witty and elegantly energetic romp, fashioned around Bach's two-part Inventions for keyboard.
Lacey's ownership of this work, developed in improv sessions with its composer, was apparent from the irrepressible bubbling of its first movement.
There were moments of mysterious poetry when lower-pitched instruments were used and it was impossible not to be caught up in the infectious rhythmic play as Lacey sparred with the orchestral strings.
Most delicious of all were passages which strayed into territory closer to bossa nova than Bach.
Lacey's encore, two short evocations of Australian birdlife by John Rodgers, took us from concert hall to the great outdoors, an illusion only momentarily shattered by the intrusion of an impudent cellphone.
Mozart's Jupiter Symphony was predictably the grandest of grand finales, blending nobility and high spirits through Hussain's extremely lively tempi.
Exquisite detail and phrasing made for a memorable andante cantabile and, before the audience was carried away by Mozart's final contrapuntal apotheosis, the minuet took time out for a freewheeling dance, spurred on by a few extra timpani flourishes from Steven Logan.