Houstoun’s technique is nothing short of miraculous.
Chords were attacked with crisp precision, extended trills shimmered and runs were delivered with lightning speed.
The birdsong conjured in the second movement Adagio religioso was perfectly conjured.
Overall, Houstoun’s interpretation of this 1945 work accentuated Bartok’s allegiance to Beethoven and the Baroque idioms.
The orchestra made more of its Romantic nature as, directed by the amiable Braithwaite.
Houstoun’s clinically perfect but stilted performance produced a work of two parts sometimes at odds with each other.
The final movement, Allegro vivace, brought the work to a exhilaratingly furious climax.
Wild approval from the audience won an encore from Houstoun of Satie’s Gnossienne No 1, also played with sharp pointedness from a score.
The programme opened with Jack Speirs’ medieval sounding Fanfare.
Commissioned for the orchestra’s 30th anniversary, brass dominates an overly succinct score.
Beethoven’s programmatic Leonore Overture No 3, Op 72b has a wealth of lovely episodes and a final flurry of exuberance.
The orchestra produced a convincing performance keeping the work coherent.
Dvorak’s Symphony No 9 in E Minor, "From the New World" is well known and well loved.
In Saturday’s performance, the Largo became its highlight.
The orchestra kept its broad gestures of grave portent and disarming lyricism perfectly balanced and alive.
Other movements seemed not to hold the audience’s attention to quite the same extent.
The programme achieved a coherent balance between Bartok’s spine-chilling harmonies and the Romantic sublimity of Speirs, Dvorak and Beethoven.
- Marian Poole
Dunedin Symphony Orchestra with Michael Houstoun
Dunedin Town Hall, September 10
