One of the music world's "best-kept secrets'', the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra has some illustrious competition at the forthcoming Grammy Awards. Shane Gilchrist reports.
New Zealand Symphony Orchestra chief executive Christopher Blake was not even aware the NZSO was a Grammy Awards entrant until he received a message from the head of record label Naxos last month informing him the 90-plus group was actually a finalist.
In fact, he is still trying to come to terms with the potential implications of the symphony's nomination for Best Orchestral Performance at the 58th Grammy Awards, which will be held in Los Angeles on February 15 (US time).
The NZSO earned its nomination for Symphony Humen 1839, a recording of works by Pulitzer Prize-winning Chinese composer Zhou Long.
The title work was written in collaboration with compatriot Chen Yi.
Singaporean Darrell Ang conducted the recording, which was released on the Naxos label in May 2015.
Symphony Humen 1839 is Ang's first Naxos recording of purely symphonic work. In 2013, he and the NZSO recorded Giacomo Meyerbeer's Overtures and Entr'actes for the label.
Other nominees vying for the top classical prize are the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, Boston Symphony Orchestra and The Oregon Symphony.
"This Grammy nomination does put our name up there in lights,'' Blake says.
"Of course, we'd like to win, but just getting nominated is great. The competition is pretty fierce: the Pittsburgh, Seattle, Boston and Oregon symphonies are all fine institutions.
"We have made a large number of recordings with Naxos over the years, but this recording of contemporary Chinese orchestral music seems to have hit the spot.''
Both Zhou Long and Chen Yi are part of a generation of Chinese composers who were educated musically under the Cultural Revolution, then went on to adapt Western compositional techniques.
Symphony Humen 1839 was written to commemorate the 170th anniversary of the Humen Opium Burning, in which Chinese hero Lin Zexu and other citizens of Humen set fire to more than 1000 tonnes of illegal British opium, sparking the first Opium War between the British and Chinese empires.
Also on the CD is Zhou's The Rhyme of Taigu, which explores the history of Japanese taiko drumming, and The Enlightened, an expression of contemporary world struggles.
"It is exciting to have such a programme get such a nomination,'' Blake says.
"This was a complex recording to make. It features a wide variety of drums and percussion as well as technically demanding contemporary music. It is testament to the musicians' immense skill and that of the conductor that they are able to produce a world-class and potentially award-winning recording.''
Although international recognition is hard to quantify - indeed, Blake says the NZSO has yet to receive any formal invitations as a direct result of its Grammy nomination - it is certainly a boost for New Zealand's top classical institution.
"It is sometimes hard to be a champion at home. Sometimes you need others to give you some recognition. The orchestra has often demonstrated its quality. It attracts international artists and conductors from all over the world and they keep coming back,'' Blake says.
"I think it was Franz-Paul Decker [a conductor of international repute who was appointed the NZSO's first conductor laureate in 1995] who said it was one of the music world's best-kept secrets.''
Bridget Douglas, principal flautist, points out the NZSO recorded the album at its home base, Wellington's Michael Fowler Centre, a factor that helped her and her peers to relax.
"Because we rehearse there all the time, it just felt natural. And that's important; to really know the hall you are playing in and how the sound projects.
"I think recording is such a strange process in itself. You can sometimes feel distanced from the whole performance. You don't really get a sense what the final product is going to sound like, because recording is so finickety and methodical.
"When you are in a room, surrounded by microphones, you are very aware that everything will be captured. And the producers have such good ears ... they hear everything. There's no point pretending you haven't made a mistake.''
Douglas notes credit must also be given to the Chinese composers.
"The NZSO wouldn't be in the running for a Grammy were it not for the fact we were performing such accomplished material.
"As symphony orchestra musicians, our meat and potatoes are Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn and Brahms, all those composers the audience also knows very well.
"It becomes quite natural to play that music, but material that is out of the box really does challenge you. You have to think more deeply about how to bring the music alive, about what the composer is trying to say.
"On top of that, contemporary composers are often also exploring the outer reaches of an instrument's capabilities in a way that, perhaps, some more traditional composers didn't. Artists - and this goes for other mediums outside music - want to be different.
"With this music, I knew we were playing finely crafted pieces that were interesting and a pleasure to perform.''
On the subject of being finely tuned, Douglas says she and many of her NZSO peers will be paying great attention to the Grammy Awards ceremony, which will be held at Los Angeles' Staples Centre on February 15.
"We'll probably end up having a party somewhere.
"And, regardless of the final outcome, I think just being considered one of the top five orchestras is an honour.''
The orchestra
• For more information, including the NZSO's 2016 programme, visit: www.nzso.co.nz
