The CSO at
peak
THAT 1988
has been the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra's unequivocal highwater mark of the 80s is
clear to its subscribers. More elusive is to explain why this is suddenly so. After all,
the orchestra has much the same faces, conductors and administrators as in its two
previous years. It still inherits problems of no permanent leader, no permanent musical
director, no core of full time salaried players and parsimonious local body funding.
Yet, against all this, there is clear evidence that its standards have shot up
noticeably this year. Its Walton Belshartar's Feast under Cavdarski in May was its finest
achievement in my 23-year memory of the CSO. Two months earlier Erich Bergel was already
cracking the pace with a superbly shaped Brahms Requiem. In Canterbury Opera Trust's
successful Rigoletto, Cavdarski and the CSO suddenly put opera accompaniment here on a new
peak.
The confident vivacity of the CSO's Prokofiev Third Piano Concerto in its recent
concert suggest that conductor Donald Johanos may have faced a similar first-rehearsal
surprise from the players. It certainly gave expatriate Christchurch pianist ]effrey Grice
(now resident in Paris) a head start to integrate the dash and sparkle of his deeply
involved playing with tightly knit teamwork. Grice made light of the work's
well-documented technical difficulties.
- by lan Dando in New Zealand Listener
December 24 1988 |
