https://middle-c.org/2018/08/third-fine-orchestra-wellington-concert-unthemed-but-with-dvorak-7-a-great-success/ Classical Music Reviews, Wellington, New Zealand Tue, 21 Aug 2018 11:26:27 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.1.4 https://middle-c.org/2018/08/third-fine-orchestra-wellington-concert-unthemed-but-with-dvorak-7-a-great-success/comment-page-1/#comment-694238 Tue, 21 Aug 2018 11:26:27 +0000 https://middle-c.org/?p=14100#comment-694238 This detailed description and evaluation of Gao Ping’s Wild Cherry Tree is welcomed (since the only other review I have read of this concert did not bother to try and do it justice — tho’ I am unclear what the “certain curiosity … or misgivings” in the introductory paragraph above refers to).
Marc Taddei is clearly a spirited and hugely talented conductor who assembles a wonderful annual orchestral programme for this city — but I think he and OW deserve better support from their staff in the printed programme department. Subscribers were emailed the poetry texts of the songs and it was an illuminating joy to be able to follow these during the performance. So why were the texts not included in the printed programme, where only the somewhat bulkier and much less helpful synopses appeared instead? A new work of this scale, commissioned by arts patron Dr.Jack Richards, is a major excitement. The poetry texts suggested resonances in several directions — making China and New Zealand seem as one country, the gender divide as fluid as the ocean, the seasons a cycle of universal reference everywhere, and landscapes the means by which we confirm where we are,and what memories we have of other times and places.I am thrilled to have heard it.

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