A big audience filled Dunedin Town Hall on Saturday evening for the Dunedin Symphony Orchestra’s first 2025 concert.
They began with the short overture from Mozart’s Abduction from the Seraglio , a farcical romance set in a Turkish harem.
The work opened with three light chords from the strings, developed through various textures and themes which I thought quite "strong in character" for Mozart.
Two big works followed. Saint-Saens’ Piano Concerto No.5 nick-named Egyptian because it was composed in Egypt, was a massive performance.
Pianoforte soloist Russian pianist Konstantin Shamray was phenomenal, delivering countless arpeggio passages at a frantic pace, rippling and cascading up and down the keys with precision and clarity despite the exhilarating tempo.
The beauty of thematic passages and the exotic oriental flavour was never lost and the orchestra worked hard to successfully match their soloist’s flair and thrilling interpretation.
Shamray delighted with an encore — Debussy’s Etude No.11 Pour Les Arpeges, in a further virtuosic display of incredible scalic and arpeggio technique.
The second major work was Symphony No.6 (Pathetique) the last symphony Tchaikovsky composed, and which he completed in 24 days and described as "the best thing I have composed or will ever compose" (he died just several weeks after the premiere, aged 53).
The Pathetic is crammed with lyricism and punctuated with extremes of dynamics.
The bassoon featured in opening the Adagio and the DSO brass section achieved impressive resonance and control in exposed passages, particularly for the final section of the first and fourth movements.
The Allegro Con Grazia second movement with its 5/4 waltz character conjured thoughts of the composer’s ballet music, and the Scherzo achieved many successful climaxes.
The final movement ends unusually, with decreasing and descending passages to culminate in fadeout and ominous silence which on this occasion was held for several seconds before an eruption of tumultuous acclamation from an enthralled audience.
