Musicians in Wellington

Last weekend I was captivated by two very different musicians. 

Simon O'Neill, the New Zealand tenor was one. He is one of those rare tenors who can sing Wagner repertoire. Since I heard him in 2014 his voice has deepened. It is now a rich and resonant treat. He sang the Wesendonck Lieder and his German diction was flawless. Congratulations Simon, it was a wonderful concert.

The NZSO, with whom he sang, played Bruckner's 4th Symphony after the interval. It is a long and demanding work but they played wonderfully well. . Bruckner is not my favorite composer, mainly because it is difficult to tune your digital player to play the alternating very loud and very soft music that characterises his work - if you adjust to hear the quiet parts the rest blasts you out of the room. In a concert hall however it is a different story and I loved the orchestra blasting out their forte parts - the audience vibrated with the music as the strings and horns threw themselves into the music. They must have needed masseurs the next day.

The other musician I saw on Sunday was very different. He was sitting at a painted piano on the Wellington (NZ) waterfront.  He played the way my self-taught father used to, with the left hand strumming time to the right. I found myself humming his tune all evening.


Addendum 23 June: Today I read that shortly before the Wellington concert, Simon recorded a lullaby in German and Te Reo Maori with the NZSO as a gift for the new baby of New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. (More about the recording here.)

Lisa Gasteen returns

 

Simone Young conducting ... sketched in my program

Simone Young conducted the Sydney Symphony last night with Lisa Gasteen singing Wagner's Wesendonck Lieder. She sang with tenderness and secure voice delighting the Sydney audience. The last time I heard Lisa Gasteen  sing was in 2004 when she sang a wonderful Brünnhilde in the South Australian Ring Cycle. In 2008 she pinched a nerve in her neck while picking cumquats of all things and was forced to give up singing. Let's hope this is concert is a portend for good things to come.  

Young then conducted a fiery Bruckner's 9th Symphony and judging by the response the audience would have happily heard the whole thing twice over.

Addendum: I have just read through the notes about Wagner in my program and I am wondering why those who write about his music often seem to fall into the trap of repeating scuttlebutt and innuendo.  I looked the writer up and discover he is a not-unsuccessful local composer. I recommend to him that he read Wagner's letters to Mathida Wesendonck. I am half way through them, reading them slowly and often backtracking as they are so captivating. They explain so much about Tristan and Isolde. I don't think you could read them (together with Mathilda's notes about them) and still write the sort of commentary he wrote in the notes. The Lieder and music of course speak for themselves.