Master Series 10. Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. Adelaide Town hall. 16 Nov 2018
If you had never before heard Beethoven’s iconic Symphony No.9 in D minor – the so-called Choral Symphony – then this reading of it by conductor Nicholas Carter and the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra would have been the perfect introduction. It doesn’t get much better.
The tenth and last in this year’s Master Series is dedicated to Richard Gill AO; the much loved and respected Australian conductor and music educator who passed away last month. Speaking from the podium to the sold-out Adelaide Town Hall audience, Carter notes that Gill was one of his most important mentors. The programme notes state that Carter credits “Richard for opening [Carter’s] eyes to the world of music and to the world beyond music” and that Carter “quickly grew from pupil to apprentice to colleague and peer.” Indeed, Adelaide audiences have been witness to Carter’s rise in prominence as a conductor. He now travels the world from one podium to another, thrilling audiences as he goes, and tonight’s concert is such an example.
The Adelaide Town Hall stage is significantly enlarged to accommodate the full strength Adelaide Symphony orchestra as well as the sixty-strong Adelaide Chamber Singers Symphonic Chorus and another four solo vocalists. (The choir comprises the internationally and critically acclaimed Adelaide Chamber Singers substantially augmented with additional choristers.)
It is an impressive sight to behold.
The short first-half of the programme is the Adelaide Symphony’s first ever performance of Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, which was composed in the mid 1960s. It is a setting of excerpts from six Psalms and is redolent with Bernstein trademarks: rhythmic complexity, jazz inflections, unusual time signatures (such as 7/4), unstinting orchestration (including two harps, which Carter ensures are clearly heard and valued), and challenging vocal lines. The second movement features the talented boy-treble Charlie Wells who sings the sweetest vocal line with exceptional clarity, especially in the almost-still moments. The combination of the lower strings and the male chorus is deeply satisfying in the final third movement. During the bows, the bunch of flowers presented to Wells was almost as big as he was!
There is surely not a soul alive that has not been introduced to Beethoven’s last and mightiest Symphony No.9. (Think ‘Ode to Joy’ – that consummate choral anthem to the brotherhood of humanity, peaceful coexistence and happiness – all of which seem increasingly elusive in our modern world.) Carter sets a reasonably brisk pace from the outset and has the orchestra seated in a non-traditional arrangement with the bass section on the extreme audience-left, the cellos near the centre-middle, and the violins and violas traversing the width of the stage. Whether or not this placement is needed in part to accommodate the choir, it also has an important auditory effect: it draws out the ‘inseparability’ of the music by reducing the focus on individual sections and allowing thematic material to seemingly emerge from the assembled musical might on the stage.
The separation of the double basses and celli is particularly affecting in the fourth movement. That said, Carter’s treatment of the dynamical structure of the composition is beautifully thought out, so that when an individual instrument or section does momentarily have its ‘time in the sun’, the result reminds us that brotherhood and union is nonetheless reliant on utilising our differences.
Carl Crossin prepares the choir with his usual attention to detail. At full volume, the articulation of the massed voices is astonishing. Even if one has no clue of the actual sung German text, one can still discern every word. Priceless.
The four solo vocalists stand with the choir, and even though they are located behind the might of the orchestra, they too are impressive in their clarity. Soprano Jacqueline Porter and mezzo-soprano Anna Dowsley combine exquisitely. Paul O’Neill’s tenor lines are rich and melodious, and bass Andrew Collis is nothing less than commanding.
What an uplifting concert and superb end to the 2018 Master Series. Bring on 2019!
Bravo Nicholas Carter, bravo Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, bravo Carl Crossin and the Adelaide Chamber Singers Symphonic Chorus, and bravo solo vocalists.
Vale Richard Gill
Kym Clayton
When: 16 Nov
Where: Adelaide Town Hall
Bookings: Closed
Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. Entertainment Centre. 10 Nov 2018
Hindmarsh swarmed with Harry Potters, Hermione Graingers, Ron Weasleys and even a few Snapes.
Flags of Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Slytherin and Hufflepuff flew inside the Entertainment Centre and children queued patiently to have flag symbols painted on their arms and faces in the lead-up to the big ASO/Potter night. The place was packed. Burgers and chips and soft drinks were allowed into the auditorium.
The ASO was spread out in shimmering formality beneath the huge cinema screen, with the mighty Elder Conservatorium Chorale Graduate Singers lined up neatly behind the musicians. It was a cast of thousands with Hamish McKeith conducting.
The crowd, for it was more a crowd than a conventional audience, cheered loudly as he called out to ask who belonged to which Harry Potter house. Everyone had one. This critic was quickly assigned Ravenclaw. The crowd was told to roar and cheer however it chose in the Harry Potter scheme of things. It roared approbation. And the orchestra struck up.
For the next several hours, the atmosphere was really quite magical, as the J.K. Rowling tale of magicians and sorcerers and weird and wonderful creatures evolved. The orchestra sailed with the moving pictures. It soared in fabulous crescendos and it tinkled in thrills. It moaned in apprehension and growled in fury. It turned ethereal in the joys of flight and deeply dramatic as violence broke out. It was a traveller in time and space. It was sublime.
And the movie rolled on with its joys and fears and curses and spells and strange beasties of the earth and sky. It thrilled with its cast of characters of the ancient college of magical arts, its dark corridors and living paintings, its wonderful Buckbeak, the Hippogriff, and the slashing tree.
The two art forms were as a glorious one. But the crowd took nothing for granted. Harry Potter fans know when Harry Potter is getting the goods and it broke out into applause over and over when the orchestra’s performance had particularly pleased it.
Needless to say, the ovation at the end was mighty.
For, indeed, this collaboration between cult cinema and literature attracted a very fresh orchestral audience. The demographics were diverse but the enjoyment was universal.
Samela Harris
When: 10 Nov
Where: Adelaide Entertainment Centre
Bookings: Closed
Next: 14 Sep, 2019
ASO with Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Tickets on sale December 3.
Bookings: aso.com.au
Master Series 9. Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. Adelaide Town Hall. 2 Nov 2018
The ninth in this year’s Master Series concert comprised a satisfying Mozart/Bruch/Stravinsky sandwich, but it would be too easy to suggest that the Bruch ‘filling’ was the main fare. Yes, Natsuko Yoshimoto’s performance of Bruch’s celebrated Violin Concerto No.1 in G minor borders on the sublime, and the orchestra’s performance of Mozart’s Symphony No.35 in D, ‘Haffner’ is refined and elegant, and Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite is as exhilarating as it should be, but there was also something else happening.
The glue that holds it all together and allows the character of each piece to shine through with penetrating clarity is the American conductor Karina Canellakis. Only in her mid-thirties and making her Australian debut, Canellakis is relatively new to the conductor’s podium but has already signalled she is one to watch with her thoughtful yet expressive readings.
The Andante second movement of the Mozart and the Adagio second movement of the Bruch were highlights, with superb phrasing and sensible dynamics. Yoshimoto elicited tonally pure pianissimo notes while Canellakis ensured complementary balance from the orchestra.
At the tender age of twenty-seven, The Firebird was Stravinksy’s first large-scale work for orchestra. Conceived as a ballet, it was updated several times (partly so that Stravinsky could enjoy asserting copyright after it was stolen away from him by by the communist USSR government). The 1945 orchestral suite version, as performed, has ever since been considered an almost indispensable item of the repertoire, and it is no wonder. It is bold, brash, exciting, melodic, and sensitive. It gives the opportunity for all sections of the orchestra to shine through, and at the end Canellakis takes the time to share the kudos with every section of the orchestra, with special mention to the horns and woodwind.
Indeed, many an audience member could be heard humming the foremost horn melody line as they left the Town Hall into the balmy spring evening.
Kym Clayton
When: 2 Nov
Where: Adelaide Town Hall
Bookings: Closed
Australian Chamber Orchestra. Adelaide Town Hall. 2 Oct 2018
Ilya Gringolts is an electrifying violinist. Of course his technique is superlative – like many other top shelf violinists – as is the care with which he prepares his instrument (string selection and the like), but all this is eclipsed by his breath-taking artistry and profound musicianship; all this with no histrionics when he is in full flight. The lyrical sound that he produces has the stuff of Apollo breathed into it, and must surely be the envy of mere mortal musicians.
From all accounts Niccolò Paganini presented a striking figure in performance and he delighted in composing masterpieces for the violin that were often considered unplayable. Be that true or not, Gringolts gives every appearance that Paganini’s Violin Concerto No 1 presents no such challenges as he cuts through its intricacies with ruthless adeptness. However, his performance isn’t merely a dazzling technical display: he plays as if he is channelling Paganini himself and treats the concerto as if it were his own personal plaything. In Gringolts’ hands, the absurdly difficult double stopping looks trivial. Bernard Rofe’s arrangement of the concerto for string orchestra seems heavy and ‘thick’ at first, with an over emphasis on the violas and cellos. It really needs the woodwinds, but Gringolts soon makes one forget that. The near capacity audience can not contain their excitement and wait until the end of the concerto to show their appreciation. Instead the audience erupts into spontaneous applause at the end of the first movement. Dressed in black trousers and a loose smock shirt, Gringolts is a lather of perspiration when it is over, necessitating a change of clothes during the interval. But astonishingly he has the energy to play an encore before doing so.
The Paganini is the main event of the evening, but it does not entirely overshadow CPE Bach’s Sinfonia in C, Wq 182/3, Vivaldi’s Concerto for Violin and Two Cellos in C, RV 561, and Bartók’s ever popular Divertimento.
The Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO) ,with Gringolts also in the role of director, give an adequate reading of the Bach – no surprises there – and a spirited performance of the Vivaldi, in which the dialogue between Gringolts (as primo violin) and the two celli is beautifully controlled and a delight to watch as well as to hear. The ACO perform the outer movements of the Bartók with great panache, excellent dynamics, crisp articulation, and passion.
This concert is an eye opener, and the audience leave thrilled but also satisfied.
Kym Clayton
When: 2 Oct
Where: Adelaide Town Hall
Bookings: Closed
Master Series No 7. Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. Adelaide Festival Theatre. 28 Sep 2018
Expressions of tenderness and love through Chopin’s Piano Concerto No 2 in F minor, and the terror of war through Shostakovich’s Symphony No 8 in C minor. The two halves of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra’s Master Series No 7 concert could not have been more different, and nor could they have evoked more diametrically opposed responses. The evening is a roller coaster ride of emotions, and it is almost a blessing to leave the emotion laden confines of the Adelaide Town Hall for the spring chills outside.
Benjamin Grosvenor gives a fine performance of the Chopin, but it seems safe. His prodigious talent and technical expertise tame the contrasting moods of the concerto’s three movements and the result is a deeply satisfying gestalt. The larghetto second movement is achingly beautiful and Grosvenor is able to expose its inner transcendent qualities.
Maestro Mark Wigglesworth’s reading of the Shostakovich is simply extraordinary. It is a long work –around sixty minutes long – and the central challenge is to lay bare but not fall prey to its grim and raw psychology. This particular symphony, like many others of Shostakovich, is best appreciated when one knows the context in which it was written. Symphony No 8 is not so much a response to the horrors of World War II but an indictment of Stalin’s subjugation of his own people. Through the music we experience the ugly reality and grind of the everyday life of the oppressed Russians. We bear witness to their physical and mental torture and their longing for deliverance into something better. We catch glimpses of their battered but ultimately inextinguishable spirit and pride. All of this is experienced over an unrelenting hour that feels like an eternity and also like seconds.
Wigglesworth controls the aural landscape with almost ruthless passion; the orchestra itself has never sounded finer. The whole visceral experience has one gripping the seat and clenching one’s jaw. It is almost too much, and at the end the audience is silent for a full fifteen seconds. Then the applause starts, and it builds and builds and builds and persists. It is almost inappropriate to clap, but we do. Despite the subject material, it is a masterful performance.
Kym Clayton
When: 28 Sep
Where: Festival Theatre
Bookings: Closed