![]() ![]() Having heard Pohl lead her ensemble with enormous distinction through complete cycles of the composer’s string quartets I was naturally intrigued to hear how she would tackle the very different role of a concerto soloist, albeit in the same composer’s music. First up was Beethoven’s adorable Violin Concerto, with great interest centred around the soloist, none other than Helene Pohl, the leader of the internationally renowned New Zealand String Quartet. The lately-renamed Wellington City Orchestra’s second 2023 outing was this time with the much-respected Rachel Hyde taking her turn on the podium. – not only were the two featured works on the programme sure-fire drawcards, but each presentation had the kind of “ädded value” that made their pairing difficult to resist. Small wonder that this concert drew what seemed like a full house to St.Andrew’s-on-The-Terrace Church in Wellington on Saturday afternoon. ![]() St.Andrew’s-on-The-Terrace Church, Wellington Saturday 24 th June, 2023 I find it puzzling.SAINT-SAENS – Symphony No. Isn’t opera meant to aspire to a fusion of greatness of words and music, not to have one come limping behind the other in the dusk? I wonder whether this acceptance of verbal mediocrity is common. It’s as if the critics felt the music was all that mattered or wanted so badly to praise the opera for its “daring” and profound subject matter that they found ways to minimize the emptiness of its actual verbal content. The New Yorker mostly avoids the subject, saying “purely as an experience in sound, the Met’s Atomic was a triumph.” He must be talking about the sound, not the words, when he refers to the “skull-splitting” duet as “sumptuous.” And the sapient Clive Barnes made the contradiction most explicit when he called the opera “terrific” but admitted that the libretto was “dull.” “Terrific” and “dull.” Sorry, they don’t go together. The New York Times critic strenuously praised just about everything in the opera while artfully avoiding any explicit reference to the words. In New York magazine we are told the libretto mixes “leaden lingo” and “opaque poetry,” but somehow that doesn’t matter because the music and sets are so good. ![]()
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