• 26 February 8pm: Mahler Symphony No. 8. Will be awesome. There is a free live broadcast in Civic Square, tickets for the real thing range from $46 to $176. I suspect that the $46 tickets will be really, really bad, probably a worse option than the broadcast, but probably that’s where I’ll end up.
• 5 March 8pm: Simon O’Neill sings a selection of Wagner. The Festival describes this as a “banquet of delights for opera-lovers”, but on the whole I’d rather have an actual opera, or at least a proper orchestral concert featuring contemporary music. In any case, didn’t essentially the same concert happen in Wellington fairly recently? Thanks are due to everybody who didn’t turn up at Resonances at the last festival – you’re the reason we can’t have nice things. $40-$125. Don’t throw your money away.
• 6-7 March between events: Breath of Wind, featuring the Levin Brass Band. I’ve no idea what this will actually sound/look like, but it’s free!
• 6 March 12pm: organ recital by John Wells. Free!
• 6 March 2pm: Stockhausen’s Helicopter String Quartet. Or, at least, a film of it, rather than the actual thing. Free.
• 6 March 4pm: the NZTrio perform a variety of movements from various string trios. The highlight will probably be a new work by David Downes, if only for the fact that it won’t have its integrity compromised by the Greatest Hits concept. Why is this happening at 4pm? $45 (one class of seating).
• 6 March 7.30pm: The Borodin Quartet play string quartets by Borodin, Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky. Not an astonishingly exciting programme, but it has Shostakovich 8th and there will supposedly be $15 student rush tickets available.
• 7 March 12pm: organ recital by Douglas Mews. Free!
• 7 March 2pm: a (mostly) children’s concert of music inspired by Tolkein and Dahl with the Zephyr Wind Quintet. Tickets are $36, kids $18.
• 7 March 4pm: the NZSQ perform Schubert, Alban Berg, Ross Harris and Beethoven (with Jenny Wollerman). The Alban Berg String Quartet really turned me on to 20th century music. It’s an absolute masterpiece, and definitely worth hearing. The Ross Harris should be interesting as well, although the Schubert is rather dull. $45 (one class of seating).
• 7 March 7.30pm: Keith Lewis in recital accompanied by Michael Houstoun. This is a total waste of Houstoun and of the festival’s money – a professional accompanist would do an equally good job. On the programme are Purcell, Britten, Barber and the inestimable Jenny McLeod. Probably the best programme on offer at the festival. $58 B reserve, $68 A reserve.
• 12 March 8pm: Ravi Shankar is 90 years old. This is the probably the last chance to see him play (I hope so, he certainly deserves a rest at that age) – and he certainly is a great musician – but there is quite a possibility that – as with Pavarotti’s tour a couple of years ago, he’s simply past it. Tickets range from $73 to $120.
• 17 March 7.30pm: The Freiburg Baroque orchestra performs Haydn and Mozart. Although the festival claims they are interpreters of “Classical Romantic and even contemporary music”, their two programmes belie this. It would be a fair bet that these two concerts will sound exactly the same, but if you must go to one, make it this first one, featuring the fourth Mozart Horn Concerto. $46-$98. You’ll need to spend $88 to be in a half-reasonable position.
• 18 March 7.30pm: The FBO snore their way through their second concert of Haydn and Mozart. $46-$98

It will certainly be interesting to see how the combination of Schoenberg and Schumann succeeds here. Although it might seem as if the NZSO is moving somewhat out of the repertoire comfort zone with the one-and-a-half doses of Schoenberg, this is somewhat misleading. Verklaerte Nacht is a solid, if unchallenging work that lies pretty firmly in the late Romantic tradition that should fit pretty snugly alongside the Schumann. I haven’t heard the Brahms in this orchestral version, but it is a finely crafted piece and Schoenberg a great orchestrator. Inkinen conducts.

8. Ross Harris: Vienna (Mahler); Haydn: Cello Concerto No. 1; Mahler: Symphony No. 5

If Li Wei can breather any life into the Haydn Cello Concerto I shall be impressed, because it really is a thoroughly uninteresting work. Vienna (Mahler) is part of a commission from the NZSO, Three Pieces for Orchestra. I have to wonder where the other pieces are – it’s pretty poor of the orchestra not to play the entire work. Harris doesn’t deserve to be treated as an accessory to a dead composer, particularly as performing something like this, presumably intended as a tribute, hardly gives a fair impression of his work. Inkinen conducts.

9. Copland: Appalachian Spring Suite; Jennifer Higdon: Percussion Concerto; Lyell Cresswell: Landscapes of the Dead; Beethoven: Symphony No. 6 ‘”Pastoral”

Jennifer Higdon provides the first international contemporary music of 2010. What little music of hers I have heard is very impressive – not exactly avant garde, but certainly striking. Lyell Cresswell is an expat who has spent most of his career in Scotland; I’ve only ever heard one of his works – a trumpet concertino played by the NZSO – and that was hardly inspiring, but one never knows! Appalachian Spring Suite is Copland’s populist side. Some people seem to love it, but the only real highlight is the joyous rendition of Simple Gifts. And the “Pastoral” Symphony? Don’t talk to me about the ”Pastoral” Symphony. Alexander Shelley conducts.

10. Britten: Four Sea Interludes (from Peter Grimes); James MacMillan: Veni, Veni, Emmanuel; Ravel: Pavane for a dead princess; Strauss: Death and Transfiguration

This is probably the most complete concert of the lot, with just the one chestnut thrown in to pretend that a theme exists. The Strauss may be a little hard to swallow, but the MacMillan and Britten more than make up for this. MacMillan is probably the best known young postmodern composer around, and although I can sense a reduced audience, it should at least be an appreciative one. Alexander Shelley conducts.

11. Telemann: Burlesque de Don Quixotte; Sallinen: Some Aspects of Peltoniemi Hintrik’s Funeral March; Grieg: Two Norwegian Melodies; Arthur Foote: A Night Piece; Sibelius: Impromptu; Mendelssohn: String Symphony No. 10

This concert concerts mostly of music for string orchestra – and yet it manages to be wildly more interesting than most of the other concerts on offer. Telemann is a great, underplayed composer, although I feel that writing for strings alone does diminish the scope for his brilliant early use of instrumental colour. Sallinen is an amazing contemporary composer; Arthur Foote is completely unknown to me. The Mendelssohn manages to be simultaneously insipid and dazzling; it would certainly be no loss were the entirety of Mozart’s work to be lost in a rather bizarre fire and replaced in the repertoire by Mendelssohn’s. Vessa Matti Lepannen directs.

12. Christmas music.

Alright, it includes both Britten and Rutter, but still. You must be joking. This absolutely cannot be happening.

Paul Goodwin conducts.

Additional Concerts

At the Festival of the Arts the NZSO is adding a concert of Wagner sung by Simon O’Neill to the Mahler 8 concert already announced. This seems to be the extent of their involvement next year. Still, Wellingtonians can consider themselves lucky, because in Auckland a concert of waltzes will be performed. A concert of Rodgers and Hammerstein will be performed, for which the management had better have a really good excuse.

It seems like the year’s shining light will be the Made in New Zealand concert (as usual), which will feature two works by Ross Harris, including a Violin Concerto, along with a work by John Psathas (I get the impression that this isn’t his new marimba concerto, but that will be brilliant when it happens), something by Claire Cowan and a comparatively ancient work by Arnold Trowell from the early twentieth century.