Alexander Gavrylyuk Plays Rachmaninov

The huge, urgent string opening was the surge of adrenaline and excitement Icarus might have felt when he took flight on the wings his father made for him. Lera Auerbach’s Icarus flew through the orchestral gamut, exploring melody, dissonance, rhythm, movement, tone, and some superb instrumental arrangements. The flute might often represent flight but Auerbach somehow did the same with just the brass and reed woodwind.

Alexander Gavrylyuk brought his virtuosic piano talent to the work of another virtuoso and proved himself more than equal to the task. With 24 variations to play with, conductor Vasily Petrenko held the orchestra perfectly in its complex supporting role. Sergei Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini must cover every key the piano has. Gavrylyuk’s touch is equally wide ranging. In a slower, perhaps even mournful variation, he conveyed an incredible weight of emotion through the piano keys with enormous sensitivity. In the showpiece cadenzas and livelier movements, he proved he could combine great technical skill with that same sensitivity to give each variation on the theme its own distinct character and style.

Béla Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra lived up to its somewhat confusing title as the orchestra stepped into the limelight for its own solo performances. In five movements Bartók gave every section of the orchestra their 15 seconds of fame. The strings had us captured from their slowly building start, Petrenko drew an impressively delicate and transparent sound from the brass section, the clarinet solo was prominent, the piccolo had lots of perfectly executed exposure, and my favourite, the violas, did a superb job of their solo passage. The final movement built to fever pitch before its sudden but joyous end. Earlier in the evening Petrenko had told us this was “funky, and fun to play” and the NZSO always seem to add an extra something when they’re clearly having fun.