Time was when many people would look at the kind of fare offered by a concert such as this and suddenly discover all kinds of other things that they simply HAD to get done instead, such as mowing the lawns. Although the Ilott Theatre wasn't packed to the extent that it was for Michael Houstoun's recent Beethoven concerts, I thought the attendance was a "good average" for what seemed... read more

With some surprise I read in the Stroma program booklet that this was in fact the SECOND "Mirror of Time" Concert presented by the Ensemble, following on from an occasion in 2012 - had I recently awakened from a kind of "Rip Van Winkel" sleep, or something? I had been to and reviewed a couple of Stroma concerts that year, but I couldn't remember a "Mirror of Time" title... read more

The Kronos Quartet got an extremely warm reception at the end of their Wellington concert - and they responded with no less than four encores! Still, opinions among people I knew in the audience varied afterwards - simply marvellous, said one friend; while another lamented that the group played only one thing he liked, the Silvestrov Quartet. A third thought it all a bit self-indulgent, three "veterans" and a... read more

This concert put me in mind of a review I once read of a performance given by the great 19^th Century pianist/composer Anton Rubinstein, while on tour in the United States, the writer turning to a kind of “vernacular” in order to be able to express the wildness of exhilaration that had seized him when confronted with such music-making – “….the house trembled, the lights danced, the walls shuck, the... read more

Stroma brought up the 100th anniversary of Arnold Schoenberg's landmark creation Pierrot Lunaire in unique style at Wellington's Ilott Theatre, as part of a program featuring the music of both pupils and contemporaries of the composer. Naturally, the concert's focus centered firmly on Pierrot Lunaire, with the advance publicity's imagery suggesting a theatrical presentation, one featuring the extremely gifted singer Madeleine Pierard. This performance took up the second half of... read more

Five of the six works in this Stroma concert were New Zealand premieres, and one of these was a world premiere (Paolo Cavallone - Hóros). The odd one out was Yoshihisa Taïra's highly theatrical and dramatic Synchronie, a kind of "Duelling banjos" for two flutes, which one imagines being readily enjoyed by all but the most conservative listeners. For that reason, I wasn't surprised to find that it's already... read more

There's no doubt about the ability of a set of bagpipes - or, more profoundly, a Highland pipe band - to make an impression on people - I was going to say "set the blood racing", but I know some people for whom the sound of bagpipes has the opposite effect as regards the movement of blood! I love the sound in reasonably digestible doses and I'm sure most... read more

Stroma's 2012 concert formats are taking in both larger, standardized happenings called "Headliners", which feature well-known performers and works by established composers, and briefer, concentrated concerts of less than an hour's duration called "Soundbytes" - the group's publicity referred to these events as "aural degustations", a term which had me reaching for my dictionary, illiterate peasant that I am, to be summarily enlightened - and yes, these in this... read more

Every NZSM Orchestra concert I go to seems to surpass the previous one in some respect or other, to the extent that I now expect to encounter on each new concert occasion a stimulating and innovative programme and a high standard of performance skills from all concerned. This latest one was certainly no exception, with conductor Ken Young at the orchestral helm securing from the students (and some of... read more

This was a "Made In New Zealand" concert which packed a real wallop, featuring three substantial pieces of music by different New Zealand composers - all of whom, incidentally, were present.  While none of the performances on this occasion were premieres, each one seemed to me to freshly unwrap the music, and square up whole-heartedly to the technical and emotional challenges of each of the pieces' different physical and... read more