For many in the audience, Auckland Philharmonia’s Haydn & Shostakovich concert will have been a highlight of their music year, with the eternal freshness of Grieg’s Peer Gynt making for a spirited welcome.
German maestro Karl-Heinz Steffens, who introduced himself to us in 2024 with magisterial Bruckner, was equally at ease with Grieg’s more uncomplicated narratives, as the pellucid woodwind colours of the first movement melted into sweeping orchestral surges.
The death of the hero’s mother registered movingly through the considerable power of the Auckland Phil strings while the dance of that wily Anitra slipped capriciously between swaying waltz and gnarlier pizzicato.
The finale in the hall of the Mountain King was suitably terrifying, even if its explosive climax had Grieg’s staking melody prematurely buried under powerhouse chords.
How fortunate we are to experience a soloist of Anastasia Kobekina’s calibre, playing Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No 1 as if she had been born to do so.
Barefooted, with a performance mode that redefined energetic, she hurled herself into the first movement, with its unsettling opening phrases, wild, thrusting dissonances and scurrying passagework. Meanwhile, behind her, Gabrielle Pho’s beautifully turned horn contributions made their first ominous appearance.
The anguished sadness that Steffens created in the slow movement was the perfect complement to Kobekina’s melancholic and almost sobbing melodies.
Her massive cadenza had an added theatricality, thanks to the sheer physicality of its rendition and an extraordinary sense of spontaneity. After it, a brutal finale chilled as it should.
Thrills rather than chills came when Kobekina announced an encore by New Zealand composer Penny Axtens, who was present in the hall, hearing her piece for the first time. Testing but triumphant, this was almost uncannily moulded to the cellist’s mercurial style.
After the interval, Haydn’s Symphony No 97 was delightfully light and frothy, throughout Steffens stressed the old master’s sense of humour, beginning with a short and beguiling Adagio quickly subsumed by a bold, fanfaring Allegro.
Its closing Presto inspired concertmaster Max Tan and principal oboe Bede Hanley to take advantage of a pause in proceedings and offer their own brief but witty cadenzas before Haydn’s closing burst of exhilaration.