Whirimako Black
Classical
A major force
by Peter Shaw
Gao Ping’s new piano concerto anchors a celebration of New Zealand composers.
The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra’s Made in New Zealand concert, given only in Wellington, had as its marketing drawcard Tuhoe singer Whirimako Black, whose gorgeously sultry renderings of such Russ Garcia-arranged songs as Konehunehu (Misty) and To Ata Mene Mai (The Shadow of your Smile) deservedly give her star status as our own Sarah Vaughan.
The concert began with a karanga performed by her mother, Anituatua Black (you could see where the daughter gets it from), and a mihi from Amster Reedy. The orchestra tunefully sang a waiata. Then followed shorter orchestral works by New Zealand composers: Helen Bowater’s eloquent Urwachst, Chris Watson’s lush but thickly textured Pivotal Orbits, David Farquhar’s deftly scored Scherzo. Somewhat anachronistically, but nonetheless interestingly programmed, was a heavily late romantic Symphonic Movement by Richard Fuchs. A German-Jewish refugee who arrived here from Dachau in 1939, he practised as an architect and continued to compose without hope of ever hearing a single note of his work performed.
The centrepiece of this celebration of (mostly) new music was the highly accomplished half-hour Piano Concerto by the Chinese-born Gao Ping. Gao has taught composition at the University of Canterbury since 2005 and has been a major force in New Zealand music since his arrival. His acclaimed piano recitals always include his own distinctive -compositions. In response to a generous commission from Professor Jack Richards, he has written a work characterised by all the qualities for which his music is so admired internationally: a clear grasp of structure, an intriguing assimilation of Chinese and Western musical idioms, a fine ear for textural subtlety at all dynamic levels and a keen appreciation of the sensuous beauty of sound.
An expert pianist, Gao knows how to exploit his instrument in the interests of drama and excitement, writing music whose virtuosity is utterly captivating to the listener on first hearing – evident from the new work’s reception.
His concerto’s purely musical origin lies in the fact that notes of the piano once struck -immediately die away. For this reason, most piano concertos tend to utilise the instrument’s percussive qualities. The conceptual core of the piece, heard at its outset, lies in the sounds that fade after a series of As are played and then are interrupted by sudden percussive thrusts.
The alternation between quiet, delicately scored passages and more rhythmically aggressive ones continues throughout the work’s two movements. There are three extended cadenzas for the soloist, although a number of extremely beautiful sections in which the piano weaves sounds in and around fragile percussion textures function in a similar way. By contrast, the finale of the second movement involves an energetic rhythmical build-up climaxing in an unexpected coup de théâtre as the pianist plays, claps and hits the wooden frame beneath the keyboard.
It is a mark of Gao’s skill that, in a work of such magnitude, he is able to -combine so many diverse elements while at the same time never losing sight of the work’s intention and overall design. How often do new pieces appear merely to be a succession of unrelated passing sounds, without audible pattern or form?
This is a major new concerto that cries out for early CD release. We are lucky to be able to identify the work of such a gifted composer as being Made in New Zealand. We are, too, to have Ken Young, an experienced conductor in whose skilled and committed guiding hands the concert’s success undoubtedly lay.
MADE IN NEW ZEALAND, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Wellington Town Hall, May 9.
