Conductor
“Grodd keeps orchestra and choir fully fired and the sound is positively sumptuous.”
Uwe Grodd first gained worldwide recognition when he won First Prize at the Cannes Classical Awards 2000, for the ‘Best 18th Century Orchestral Recording’ with his CD of Symphonies by Johann Baptist Vanhal conducting the Nicolaus Esterhazy Sinfonia in Hungary.
Cannes Classical Awards 2000
1st Prize – Orchestral 18th Century
Johann Baptist Vanhal Selected Symphonies Vol 1
Nicholaus Esterhazy Sinfonia | Uwe Grodd, conductor
Among the many new discs of forgotten music by Mozart’s contemporaries this Naxos issue stands out. These four compact Symphonies are all winningly colourful and inventive, often bringing surprises that defy the conventions of the time. The Esterházy Sinfonia under Uwe Grodd give attractively lively performances with some stylish solo work, vividly recorded.
And the Nicolaus Esterházy Sinfonia is totally in tune and in touch with this bright, vigorous, optimistic music. There’s a terrific, very beautiful, unexpected cello solo in the middle of the A major Symphony that, along with an unusual, quiet ending, shows Vanhal at his most inspired and original. We know that music in 18th-century Vienna wasn’t all Mozart, and this program reminds us that even among the second-tier composers, audiences back then had it pretty darn good.
“Uwe Grodd and his Hungarian players are alert and polished. They are easily as good as the best of the other discs, and the recording is outstanding as well."
"And now, at budget price, the German conductor Uwe Grodd, in a disc appetizingly styled Symphonies Vol. 1, presents, four more, in lusty readings that set the music fizzing on its way.”
An exceptional project of collaboration with composer and master drummer Reinhard Flatischler, the founder of TaKeTiNa, led to the performance of the Symphonic Suite ‘Waves upon Waves’. Orchestrated by Johnny Bertl it is a unique and superb sound scape for large orchestra, choir and percussion.
‘Zeitfilm’, Germany and ‘Unboxed Media’, Australia caught the world premiere on film in Auckland, New Zealand.
Auckland Philharmonia, Auckland Choral, Reinhard Flatischler, Uwe Grodd, Auckland Town Hall, NZ
Uwe Grodd’s world premiere recording of the Missa Solemnis, by Johann Nepomuk Hummel, with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and Tower Voices NZ, was voted ‘Editor’s Choice’ by British Gramophone Magazine in May 2004.
Johann Nepomuk Hummel Missa Solemnis, Te deum
Patricia Wright, Zan McKendree-Wright, Patrick Power, David Griffiths, Tower Voices New Zealand, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra
Uwe Grodd, conductor
“…And good to see music-making of this vigour and mastery coming from New Zealand – it makes a change from hobbits!"
"... what a delight it is, the more so when Uwe Grodd draws such exhilarating performances from his forces … Grodd inspires vigorous playing and singing.”
"A thrilling issue"
“Grodd keeps orchestra and choir fully fired and the sound is positively sumptuous.”
"The New Zealand choir and orchestra do Hummel proud. Celebratory movements have a fine, ringing impetus, while Uwe Grodd shapes the more reflective sections with tenderness.”
Uwe Grodd’s ambition to conduct and record the Complete Works for piano and orchestra of Beethoven’s friend and student, Ferdinand Ries (1784-1838), began with a collaboration with pianist Christopher Hinterhuber in 2004. November 2012 marked the international launch of the fifth and final volume with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. The first four volumes feature the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Sweden’s Gävle Symphony, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, and include a remarkable set of variations for piano and orchestra of Rule Britannia. Uwe agrees with FANFARE USA Magazine which wrote: ‘Thus, slowly, Ries is finally occupying the place in music history that is rightly his.’ He believes these recordings will transform people’s understanding of a composer who still lives in the shadow of Beethoven’s genius.
The first volume was greeted with enthusiasm on both sides of the channel:
Ferdinand Ries | Piano Concertos Op. 123 (1806) and Op. 151 (1826)
Christopher Hinterhuber, piano | New Zealand Symphony Orchestra | Uwe Grodd, conductor
“…Hinterhuber and Grodd are the ideal team for Ries’ (1784-1838) music. ...What an exciting start to this series!"
“Spirited playing of neglected but delightful concertos – more, please! The New Zealanders provide keen and sympathetic support under Grodd and the recorded sound is exemplary… [in] this distinguished release.
“Uwe Grodd, a fine flutist as well as conductor, accompanies Hinterhuber beautifully, the Bournemouth Symphony is excellent, and the balance between piano and orchestra is perfect.”
“Naxos has found precisely the right combination of artists to do these works justice. Uwe Grodd, whose work I’ve admired in Classical-era pieces by Dittersdorf and Vanhal, is just as comfortable in early-Romantic music and accompanies with understanding and grace.”
The final volume received a coveted INTERNATIONAL RECORD REVIEW OUTSTANDING industry award and was celebrated universally.
…Hinterhuber delivers performances that burn with conviction; there’s no point where his concentration and onward surge flutter, where his dedication to the task in hand isn’t clear, and completely convincing. The musicians of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra likewise rise to the occasion, audibly relishing their many moments in the limelight, with Uwe Grodd shaping and directing their efforts with a keen sense of pace and direction.
“This is a real discovery; but then so is Ries’s entire output for piano and orchestra…Performance and sound as before are beyond reproach.”
For over a century, Ries the composer slipped into obscurity, his music dismissed by one critic as showing skilful industry rather than originality and practically forgotten. Not now, thanks to Naxos Records and Auckland conductor Uwe Grodd who, with pianist Christopher Hinterhuber and various orchestras, has recorded the composer’s complete works for piano and orchestra.
“Up-and-coming Austrian pianist Christopher Hinterhuber and German conductor Uwe Grodd are…featured on this release…with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra…Hinterhuber’s playing is exceptional, and characterized by a lightness of touch and precision that turn these works into mini-masterpieces. The same can be said of the support provided by Maestro Grodd and the NZSO.”
“As for interpretation, it is simply masterful.”
Performance highlights include the final concerts of the 53rd and the 54th Händel Festival in Halle, Germany. This prestigious event – a televised open-air concert – involves a combined choir of 280 and the State Philharmonic Orchestra. The previous year Uwe conducted the gala opening night of the HÄNDEL FESTIVAL HALLE with ‘Le Choeur des Musiciens du Louvre’ from Grenoble, a number of front-line soloists and the Halle Opera Orchestra performing on original instruments.
This was followed by two highly successful seasons in the Halle Opera House conducting Händel’s recently re-discovered opera, IMENEO. This season marked the launch of a new performing edition, by Baerenreiter, the foremost European publishing house. The reputable German opera magazine, OPERNWELT, nominated the performances as the RE-DISCOVERY OF THE YEAR 2003
Professor Donald Burrows, considered the foremost Handel authority world-wide, wrote in a public letter “…to express my warmest gratitude for a wonderful production, in which musical skill (and intelligence) and dramatic commitment combined to give a very moving and rewarding experience. Altogether it was one of the most effective evenings that I have enjoyed in Halle – or indeed anywhere in the many opera performances that I have attended.”
Uwe made his Mexican debut in March 2004, with the Mexico City Philharmonic, conducting Beethoven’s 1st Symphony, Liszt’s Mazeppa and Dvorak’s Czech Suite. This was followed by an immediate return invitation in June to conduct Bruckner’s Fourth and Mozart’s Elvira Madigan Concerto. Subsequently, Uwe conducted a further eight concerts which included Ein Heldenleben by Richard Strauss, Beethoven’s and Schubert’s Fifth Symphonies and Haydn’s Sinfonia Concertante.
Grodd is equally committed to the music of his own time, playing a pivotal role in commissioning more than 50 works from New Zealand composers for either, flute, orchestra or choir.
He conducted the premiere season of the multi-media opera GALILEO, with music by John Rimmer and libretto by Witi Ihimaera, and, in 2012, was Artistic Director and Conductor of LEN LYE the opera, with music by Eve de Castro-Robinson and libretto by Roger Horrocks.
LEN LYE the opera
The colourful story of a highly original artist who was far ahead of his time.
Music by Eve de Castro-Robinson / Libretto by Roger Horrocks / Design by John Verryt / Moving Images by Shirley Horrocks / Directed by Murray Edmond / Conducted by Uwe Grodd
A rich contemporary mix of music, poetry, theatre, dance, costumes and set design, films and moving sculptures. Premiere at the Maidment Theatre, University of Auckland, 6 September 2012.
Ambitious New Zealand operas are a rare occurrence. LEN LYE the opera is an outstanding example, combining music with the visual arts. Its subject is the life of Len Lye, internationally acclaimed filmmaker and sculptor – one of the most original creative figures this country has produced.
When Len died in 1980, he left his art to the people of New Zealand.
Reviews of LEN LYE The Opera
“Eve de Castro-Robinson and Roger Horrocks' LEN LYE the Opera was a triumph, combining tenacity and tunes, all wrapped up with a snazzy multi-media production - a project with a brain, a heart and, hopefully, legs. Ten years in the making, with a full house on opening night, LEN LYE the Opera was an arresting piece of musical theatre...under the hip baton of Uwe Grodd, moving us from clamour to charleston."
“Then Eve de Castro-Robinson's music leaps into jazzy Kurt Weill territory, bringing the energy of the first few bars into zestful harmonic focus, and laughing at the audience's fears: "Look, modern music doesn't only mean modernist noise..." Before Len has opened his mouth, the music has already encoded both the perpetual struggles of his life (he was indeed "the foe of the status quo", and not just artistically) and the willed joyfulness.…this is a controlled super-abundance, not chaotic kitchen-sinkery, It's oceanic, but you can swim in it, and its moments of quietness and simplicity are all the more powerful for their busy surroundings. Len Lye would be pleased.”
"This is a landmark multimedia production which deserves to be seen far more widely than just four nights in Auckland. If you can get a ticket, go."
"This was brilliantly achieved in responding to Free Radicals and the final Flip and Two Twisters. For all that, Len Lye has entered the annals of New Zealand opera with eloquent music and an intelligent libretto. I hope it will be staged again very soon, and that it does not languish like so many other recent New Zealand works."
David Hamilton | New Zealand composer
The Necessary Rain
for soprano solo, mixed-voice choir and orchestra by David Hamilton
“Erebus” is an extended poem by Bill Sewell in thirty-four sections and covers not only the events of the crash of an Air New Zealand sight-seeing flight in the Antarctic in 1979, but also the aftermath and its effect on New Zealand society.
“The Necessary Rain” is the sixteenth section of the poem, which draws attention to the fact that nobody was there to witness the crash, and nobody was there who could have warned the pilot of the imminent danger as the plane headed directly at Mount Erebus.
“The Necessary Rain” was written for Auckland Choral and music director Uwe Grodd and was given its first performance on 25 August 2012, by Ursula Langmayr, soprano, Auckland Choral and Piper’s Sinfonia, conducted by Uwe Grodd at the Auckland Town Hall.
David Hamilton | New Zealand composer
EREBUS (2015)
for soprano and baritone soloists, SAATBB choir, 2 pianos and percussion
Arrival | Breaking the Quiet | Chorus of Lost Souls
“When I was offered a commission from Auckland Choral to mark my 60th birthday, I decided I wanted to return to the poetry of Bill Sewell and his “Erebus” cycle. This new work is a further step towards a possible opera, and the three movements here roughly equate to Act 1 of an opera.
“Erebus” set texts relating to the crash of an Air New Zealand sight-seeing flight in the Antarctic on 28 November 1979. At the time it was the world’s fourth worst aviation disaster, killing 257 passengers and crew.
“Erebus: a poem” by Bill Sewell was published in 1999. It is an extended poem in thirty-four sections, and covers not only the events of the crash, but also the aftermath and its effect on New Zealand society. The texts of both my previous works based on this poetry (“Breaking the Quiet” and “The Necessary Rain”) draw attention to the fact that nobody was there to witness the crash, and nobody was there who could have warned the pilot of the imminent danger as the plane headed directly at Mount Erebus.
“Erebus” was commissioned by Auckland Choral and music director Uwe Grodd.
David Hamilton
“Arrival”
“Breaking the Quiet”
“Chorus of Lost Souls”