The Week's Music...

New Zealand Listener, Volume 35, Issue 902, 16 November 1956, Page 19

The Week's Music...

by

SEBASTIAN

HE concertos of Mozart other than those for piano seem often to have been written against rather than for the instrument, in their sheer difficulty of effective execution, the more so when one considers the i rfect instrumentmaking of the time. The horn concertos are certainly of this kind; though composed with obvious knowledge of the horn’s idiosyncrasies, there are still myriad opportunities for the unwary player to drop fluffs ard sour notes. All the more credit then to Peter Glen, who with the National Orchestra (YC link) gave a very sound performance of the fourth of these concertos, with a minimum of blues and a nice sense of climax and of humour-the latter being an absolute essential, not only for these works, but I suspect for any horn player sui genero. This is a thoroughly lighthearted piece, in spite of its pretence’ at solemnity in the slow movement, and the playing had the right naively merry approach. The horn overweighted the

orchestra to some extent, but this didn’t matter too much-after all, one almost expects this in a concerto. Robert Hughes’s Festival Overture, which opened this programme, was a fairly euphonious affair and bright, and I think would rank high in audience appeal. At any rate, this applied as far as I was the audience. The orchestration was brilliant, the playing good, and the style not too cacophonous for my essentially conservative ear. The Edinburgh Festival prograinmes ended with a bang-no whimpers here, but a satisfying performance of the Beethoven Violin Concerto by Isaac Stern, and some fascinating pieces from the Boston Brass Ensemble, a new group that .specialises in brass "chamber

music." A Ganzon of Gabrieli showed the combination off finely, with a faintly barbaric sound that matches ill with thoughts of old Italian cathedrals. A typically devil-may-care Sonata by Poulenc and a rather similar Quintet by the American Sanders were the other highlights, and gave the boisterous mood of the brasses free rein. From the Holland Festival we have had interesting works (Radio Nederland), not’/only from the standard repertoire but of Dutch composers as well. There was Diepenbrock’s incidental music to Elektra, music that owed something to French models and to Richard Strauss in its thick, even lush orchestration and sub-strata of romanticism, a rich glowing vein. Then there was the contemporary Symphonic Prologue of Badings, using a theme of Bruckner’s in a rowdily good-humoured way; though why not simply "Overture" I can’t imagine.