Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. Adelaide Festival Theatre. 29 Oct 2016
Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.3 is a crowd pleaser, and thirty year old Australian and internationally renowned pianist Jayson Gillham’s performance at the piano earned him three well deserved standing ovations from the large Festival Theatre audience. Maestro Jeffrey Tate graciously remained in the wings and allowed Gillham to enjoy the applause by himself, but Tate deserved it just as much. Between them they found a sublime balance in dynamics, phrasing and pace. Gillham’s generously sized but beautifully controlled dexterous hands were never required to coax anything more than exactly what was needed from the majestic Steinway. Gillham was especially fine in the second part of the second movement, and his sensitivity transported the audience to another place. The clarity was palpable largely due to judicious use of the pedal. Once it was over, and the exuberant applause and wolf-whistling was spent, Gillham tossed off a piece of Bach as if he was at the beginning of a recital, and not at the end of a mighty Beethoven concerto. Gillham certainly has a long and bright future in front of him, and pray we see more of him in Adelaide.
The evening began with a standard reading of Wagner’s Prelude to Act 1 of The Mastersingers of Nuremberg, which is all about the brass and stately themes. Tate ‘gets’ Wagner and he lets the music speak for itself. Absent were exaggerations in dynamics and hastened tempos in bridging sections. It all came out as it should, as if we were settling back to enjoy the entire opera: it was measured and assured, and pointed towards something full of promise.
As good as the Wagner and the Beethoven were, the main event was after the interval and came in the form of Richard Strauss’ majestic tone poem Ein Heldenleben (A Hero’s Life). Coming in at around forty minutes - as much as the overture and the concerto combined - there is more than ample opportunity for the conductor and orchestra to create an undisciplined mashup, but Tate led the forces of the enlarged Adelaide Symphony Orchestra on a clear and conquering path towards musical nirvana. Allegedly autobiographical, Ein Heldenleben has a programme but one’s enjoyment of it is not contingent on understanding the nuances of the programme. Who really cares that the solo violin, which was exquisitely played by concertmaster Natsuko Yoshimoto supposedly represents Strauss’s own wife. It really doesn’t matter, and nor does it matter that the played-through movements lack any substantial musical unity, apart from the gorgeous leitmotifs that act as musical glue. Ein Heldenleben is not everyone’s cup of tea, but, like Wagner, Tate ‘gets’ Strauss and its myriad voices sang brightly with delicately balanced passion.
This was a lesson in balance reached from the vantage point of deep understanding.
Kym Clayton
When: 29 Oct
Where: Festival Theatre
Bookings: Closed
Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. Adelaide Town Hall. 7 Oct 2016
Tasmin Little is a passionate conversationalist: throughout her clear and nuanced reading of Delius’ Violin Concerto she moves backwards and between inviolable concentration and almost casual dialogue with whichever section of the orchestra takes her fancy. The result is as good as you can get, and she extracts panoply of finely wrought emotions from her 1757 Guadagnini violin.
Acclaimed principal guest conductor Jeffrey Tate provides Little with great support from the podium. The dynamic balance between orchestra and solo violin is finely poised, but none more so than between the sections of the orchestra. Each and every musical idea that brings one section of the orchestra into prominence over the others is clearly heard, and it is a delight.
Such carefully constructed balance is ever apparent throughout Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll. Tate put to the sword the unfair quip that Wagner is full of beautiful moments but interminable minutes (or words to that effect!). The audience wishes the performance would never end. Tate observes what the piece has to offer, and carries the orchestra along in search of it.
Brahms’ Symphony No.3 is a fascinating composition. The entire four movements end quietly and peacefully, and at its end there is not the immediate and abrupt burst of applause from the audience that is typical of symphonies that end with a flourish. Rather, the audience is lulled into a contemplative state and Tate’s gentle yet persuasive conducting of the Adelaide Symphony certainly has that effect; especially in the inner two movements.
This performance is characterised by delicate and seemingly effortless balance. Bravo Tate!
Kym Clayton
When: 7 Oct
Where: Adelaide Town Hall
Bookings: Closed
Musica Viva. Adelaide Town Hall. 5 Oct 2016
In a concert comprising Mozart, Janáček, Saint-Saëns and contemporary Australian composer Jane Stanley, violinist Benjamin Beilman and pianist Andrew Tyson have a richly varied musical palette upon which to demonstrate their prowess as both individuals and as a musical partnership.
Technically, both young artists are exceptional talents, and musically they are both sophisticated and contemplative. At times their lyricism is achingly beautiful, and at other times their treatment of dissonance and spiky rhythms draws on the impetuosity of youth and demands to be listened to - here we are and we have something to say; and they do, and it is impressive.
Beilman and Tyson draw out the inherent sunniness of Mozart’s Sonata No 35 in A, and their treatment of the andante third movement is particularly expressive. It resembles a polite and respectful dialogue, with each instrument taking turns to progress the conversation. This is turned on its head in Janáček’s Vioin Sonata with both instruments boisterously clamoring for ascendency, resolving in the final adagio fourth movement in which Beilman and Tyson are at their sublime best.
Stanley’s Cerulean Orbits is a very new composition, and this is its second performance ever. In addressing the audience from the stage, Tyson notes that the piece is so new that it was his and Beilman’s very great pleasure to help the composer workshop and refine the piece only a few short weeks before.
However, Cerulean Orbits did not overly please the audience who appear to enjoy compositions that are more tonal and with obvious structure, such as Saint-Saëns’ Sonata No 1 in D minor which rounds the concert out with a veritable cornucopia of melodies. Beilman and Tyson are in their element, and they sustain the energy and momentum that the piece demands. It is an exhilarating, razor-edge ride.
Still only in their mid-twenties, Beilman and Tyson are already successful and experienced musicians, and each has an impressive list of awards and prizes to his name. They are prodigiously talented and can look forward to long and successful futures.
Kym Clayton
When: 5 Oct
Where: Adelaide Town Hall
Bookings: Closed
Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. Adelaide Town Hall. 23 Sep 2016
The main billing was Elgar’s Cello Concerto, but Prokofiev’s 5th Symphony stole the show. Guest Conductor Michael Stern led the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra in what was an engulfing performance.
Prokofiev wrote seven symphonies, and for my taste this is perhaps the best. Its strength and audacity is balanced by moments of great softness and aching tenderness. The briskness and spiky rhythms of the second movement are evocative of Prokofiev’s ballet scores, and contrast superbly with the stately regality of the first with echoes of its thematic material in the almost dissonant last movement.
Stern was at the top of his game. He plumbed the depths of the piece and produced a textured live performance that far excels many recordings. Guest Associate concert master Ike See was most engaging to watch throughout the performance. Like Stern, he ‘gets’ Prokofiev.
The concert began with a regulation performance of Debussy’s ever-popular Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune, which if anything was slightly overpowered and less nuanced than it might be. Geoffrey Collins was his usual excellent self on flute.
It is a programming joy that the ASO occasionally chooses to feature its own principal musicians in concerto performances, and on this occasion Principal Cello Simon Cobcroft took the role of soloist in Elgar’s Cello Concerto and amply demonstrated that he is a world class musician. Cobcroft is a contained yet graceful musician, and his face is the window into his musical soul. The strained opening chords were matched by anxious grimaces on his brow, the forceful pizzicati in the slow second movement were punctuated by his defiant chin. The emotional third movement was written serenely in a half smile and Cobcroft worked very well with Stern in the fourth to keep up the pace.
Stern atypically addressed the audience at the conclusion of the concert to tell us something we already knew, that the ASO is class outfit!
Kym Clayton
When: 23 Sep
Where: Adelaide Town Hall
Bookings: Closed
Musica Viva. Adelaide Town Hall. 15 Sep 2016
Music and politics are not uncommon sparring partners. To name a few, think of Beethoven striking the name of Napoleon from the dedication of his Third Symphony, or Shostakovich against Stalin, or Hitler espousing Wagner to say nothing of Wagner’s own anti-Semitism.
There are many other examples, and most recently Adelaide saw a living breathing example of politics knocking heads with music in the form of a small group of demonstrators at the main entrance to the Adelaide Town Hall to greet concertgoers arriving for a performance by the famed Jerusalem Quartet, a premier musical institution of world renown.
Brandishing placards, the demonstrators handed out pamphlets exhorting the public not to attend the concert thereby sending a “clear message to the Israeli government that its cultural ambassadors, the Jerusalem Quartet, will not be welcomed by international communities until there is a just peace in Palestine.”
Hmm…
Regardless of what one thinks about the Israel-Palestine conflict, and how to resolve it, it would seem that most if not all concertgoers politely disregarded the demonstrators, put aside politics, and went inside and enjoyed the concert, and what a concert it was: Beethoven’s youthful String Quartet No.6, Ross Edward’s carefree String Quartet No. 3 Summer Dances, and Dvorak’s mighty String Quartet No. 13.
The Jerusalem Quartet gave a text book performance of balance and harmony between the instruments. There were no surprises with their interpretations, and each composition was elegantly performed with warmth and persuasion. The authority of the cello was evident in the melancholic adagio fourth movement of the Beethoven.
Ross Edwards, who was present at the performance, introduced his own composition to the audience and commented on the “sublime acoustic” of the Adelaide Town Hall. This was especially palpable in the final Ecstatic Dance movement with the violins producing birdsong-like sounds that were reminiscent of his ‘maninya style’ in his Violin Concerto. This composition was a highlight of the evening.
Dvořák’s thirteenth string quartet is almost symphonic in character, lasting around thirty-five minutes, and the Jerusalem Quartet allowed the piece’s inbuilt energy and sundry bohemian moods to come to the fore in what was a stimulating performance.
Kym Clayton
When: 15 Sep
Where: Adelaide Town Hall
Bookings: Closed