Selby and Friends. Elder Hall, University of Adelaide. 1 Mar 2020.
Selby and Friends concerts are relaxed: Kathryn Selby (or one of her associates) speaks amiably to the audience from the stage about the music we are about to hear, idiosyncrasies about the structure of the concert, and… ‘housekeeping’. Today she thanked the Adelaide Harmony Choir for again providing the catering for afternoon tea, and noted that today’s concert – entitled A Tale of Two Cities – featured music created in two of the world’s greatest cultural hubs of the 18th and 19th centuries, Vienna and St Petersburg. She mused that with travel restrictions the way they are in today’s world (think corona virus), we could use the music to imagine being in these far flung corners of the world. The audience tittered, settled back and relaxed into an outstanding programme.
Mozart’s Piano Trio No.5 in C, K.548 is less complex than his earlier trios, and was composed later in his career. Selby, on piano, combined beautifully in the cantabile second movement with Emily Sun (violin) and particularly with Clancy Newman (cello), and did not dominate, which on occasions was almost the case in the first movement. Newman was particularly eloquent in the cantabile and produced warm and lush tones. Selby’s pedalling was authoritative and any piano student in the audience witnessed an object lesson in legato playing. Sublime.
Brahms wrote his Trio in A Minor for clarinet, cello and piano, Op.114, after being inspired by the playing of clarinettist Richard Mühlfeld. The combined timbre of this combination of instruments presents compositional challenges, and the repertoire deriving from the romantic period is comparatively thin. Many more pieces have emerged since the 1900s as musical styles and tastes have changed. The robust gypsy-style of the allegro fourth movement of Brahms’ Trio is particularly pleasing to a modern ear, and Selby and Sun combined well to draw out its spiky rhythms. Benjamin Mellefont on clarinet plays with the confidence of someone who is at the top of his game.
The second half of the program wrenched us from German traditions to Russian styles, and Stravinsky’s Suite from L’Histoire du Soldat (for violin, clarinet and piano) demonstrated to us that the combination of instruments truly has something special to offer. Selby, Sun, Newman and Mellefont individually and collectively shine during their bravura performances of this exciting work. Their timing and articulation is precise, and the dialogues between the instruments are passionate but never self-serving. Mellefont and Newman somehow create an uncommon concordance from the two instruments.
The excitement continues with a lush and richly layered performance of Arensky’s Piano Trio in D minor, Op.32 No.1. The piece teems with lyrical melodies which are echoed across the work, but it is the painfully beautiful third movement which is marked elegia/adagio. The piano and cello sustain a dream-like quality to which the violin adds empathetic embellishment showing Sun at her best. Selby’s delicate and light treatment throughout the movement is a highlight of the afternoon. The fourth movement draws the whole piece together and is explosive and sternly unrelenting. The tension that is evident on the faces of the musicians says it all, and its release at the final chord is palpable as they smile beamingly at each other and accept the applause from the large admiring audience.
Kym Clayton
When: Closed in SA, but playing until 8 Mar in other states.
Where: Adelaide Town Hall
Bookings: selbyandfriends.com.au
Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. Adelaide Town Hall. 8 Feb 2020
With its majestic and upbeat opening fanfare, Shostakovich’s Festive Overture, Op.96 impressively proclaims the opening of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra’s 2020 season and exhorts Adelaide audiences to “create a space for music”! The adventure begins, and what a beginning it is!
The Festive Overture, along with Rimsky-Korsakov’s symphonic suite Scheherazade, Op.35 (which closed out the concert), both provide ample opportunity for the various principals in the orchestra to shine, and they do! Principal clarinet Dean Newcombe is in sparkling form in the Shostakovich, and almost every principal has their moment in the spotlight at various times throughout the Rimsky-Korsakov. Special kudos goes to concertmaster Natsuko Yoshimoto who played the pivotal violin solos in Scheherazade, and it was fitting that at the end of the concert guest conductor Hendrik Vestmann gave Yoshimoto first acknowledgement. This is her final season with the Adelaide Symphony, and every concert in which she performs is to be savoured.
Vestmann’s approach to the entire program is one of precise articulation, in which every dynamic change is used to great effect, and every pause and briefest moment of silence is an emphatic musical statement itself. Scheherazade, always an audience favourite, was delivered with excitement and style. His enunciated approach to the opening of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in D, Op.35, featuring Grace Clifford on violin, is almost unexpected, but it works, and Clifford echo’s Vestmann’s precision but not in a studied or stifled way. Clifford injects great feeling into her interpretation of this much loved concerto (even though it was abhorred on debut), and the results are astonishing. Her playing is firm and technically precise, but it has heart and is not restrained. She appears ‘delicate’ on the concert stage, almost awkward – she always has – but deep within rages musical passion and understanding that results in extended periods of absolute harmonious beauty. This performance sees Clifford raise the stakes a notch – she is still in the ascendant and her next appearance with the Adelaide Symphony is eagerly anticipated!
A great start to the season! The next Master Series concert will feature Yoshimoto playing the Brahms Violin Concerto on April 3 and 4. Not to be missed.
Kym Clayton
When: 8 Feb
Where: Adelaide Town Hall
Bookings: Closed
Musica Viva. Adelaide Town Hall. 7 Nov 2019
The Skride Piano Quartet is a relatively new ensemble having been formed barely three years ago by sisters Baiba (violin) and Lauma Skride (on piano). They are accompanied by Julian Steckel (cello), who only joined the quartet very recently, and Lise Berthaud (viola).
All four artists are individually accomplished and have busy concert diaries, but individual talent alone does not necessarily make for a successful ensemble. However, in this case, the Skride Piano Quartet richly deserves its accolades and reputation as a “supergroup”. Their whole is greater than the sum of the parts, and the technical virtuosity, sensitivity, thoughtfulness and unfussed nature of their music making is quite simply a joy to behold.
The ‘Skrides’ are touring Australia with two programs for Musica Viva, and the Adelaide audience enjoyed pieces by Beethoven, Brahms and a new composition by Adelaide based composer and music pedagogue Graeme Koehne. As with all Musica Viva concerts, the programming is varied and thought provoking.
Beethoven’s Piano Quartet no 1 in E-flat major, WoO 36 is infrequently heard in concert halls and was written when Beethoven was only fifteen years old. Being such a youthful composition, it is at times ‘raw’ and lacks the musical sophistication of the master’s later works, but its very nature gives license to the performers to ‘cut loose’ and let their individuality shine. Lauma Skride was ebullient on piano from the outset and encouraged sprightly readings from the strings. In the allegro con spirito second movement Lauma extracted delightful bell-like tones from the Steinway.
For many in the audience, Koehne’s new composition Socrates’ Garden was the highlight of the program, and this tour sees it making its world première. Commissioned for Musica Viva by Tom Breen and Rachel Kohn, and inspired by their 40-hectare garden estate in the Blue Mountains, Socrates Garden is a tonal meditative work that is fundamentally driven by melody and an infectious recurring leitmotif. It begins delicately with broken chords on the piano and is then joined by the violin and then the outer strings. The listener is quickly soothed into contemplative thought and the music inexorably encourages deeper questioning and striving towards more sophisticated and refined ideas before settling towards a conclusion. Koehne was present at the concert and acknowledged the audience’s deep felt appreciation in his usual self-effacing way.
The concert concluded with a garden-fresh reading of Brahms’ Piano Quartet no 1 in G minor, op 25, which features the ever popular so-called ‘Gypsy Rondo’ in the final movement. Aspects of the composition garnered some reasonably terse criticism in its day, but the Rondo alla Zingarese guaranteed its instant and lasting success. The Skrides avoid a heavy handed approach, which can often dog performances of Brahms’ music, and phrasing and dynamic balance throughout were thoughtful and well-constructed with Brahms’ rich melodies always at the forefront.
Yet another enjoyable concert presented by Musica Viva.
Kym Clayton
When: 7 Nov
Where: Adelaide Town Hall
Bookings: Closed
Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. Adelaide Town Hall. 27 Sep 2019
It is uncommon, even difficult, for a musician or an ensemble to play a well-known piece of music so well that the performance is truly memorable, but that is exactly what the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra has done with its recent performance of Antonín Dvořák’s Symphony No.9 in E minor, Op.95, From the New World. The performance was exceptional.
Guest Conductor Douglas Boyd was at one with the essence and broadly pastoral nature of the popular work. His phrasing was explicit and exemplary, and the at-times unusual rhythms and pentatonic traits sounded perfectly natural. The principal players in the orchestra shone when it was their turn to feature the many catchy, irresistible and unforgettable melodies that suffuse the work. The woodwinds were superlative, and Peter Duggan on Cor Anglais was singled out by Boyd for his exceptional virtuosity in the hauntingly beautiful Largo second movement.
The concert began with a world première performance of Cathy Milliken’s Weave, which she describes as a concerto for orchestra. The composition is well named and describes how the various thematic material blends and weaves into each other as they are passed around the various instruments in the orchestra. All sections get a work out without one dominating over the others. The composition is episodic and the music washes over you creating thoughts and impressions that are ephemeral. The piece ends as it begins with transitory impressions that fade in from nothingness and disappear in the same way. The piece was an unusual inclusion in a Masters Series programme.
Highly respected violinist Anthony Marwood gave a safe performance of Schumann’s Violin Concerto in D minor, WoO23. The composition has a fascinating history. When it was written in 1853 it was considered exceptional, but not in a nice way, and it had to wait some eighty years before it was first performed in 1937 in Nazi Germany. The piece is lyrical and well suited to the slower tempo taken by Marwood, but it also lacked the spirit evident in brisker interpretations. Marwood was able to plumb the melancholy that is inherent in the composition. Ewen Bramble as principal cello for the performance was gently melodic and combined most beautifully with Marwood.
Kym Clayton
When: 27 Sep
Where: Adelaide Town Hall
Bookings: Closed
Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. Adelaide Town Hall. 6 Sep 2019
On a cold early spring evening, hearts were warmed and spirits uplifted with sublime performances by the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra of Vaughan Williams’ Symphony No.5 in D and Brahms’ Piano Concerto No.2 in B flat.
There is a program of sorts attributed to Symphony No.5 in D – one of humanity striving for betterment as in The Pilgrim’s Progress – but, as suggested in James Koehne’s program notes, “…we should avoid ascribing to it an excessively programmatic or narrative reading: the music can happily be left alone to communicate for itself.” And communicate it did! Internationally renowned conductor (and music commentator) Mark Wigglesworth manifestly has a deep understanding of the English symphonic tradition and this reading of Symphony No.5 in D is significant, especially in the beautiful slow third movement, in which he coaxes delicately articulated phrasing from all sections of the orchestra. There is perfect aural balance, and the woodwinds and horns are at the top of their game.
Stephen Hough makes a welcome return to Adelaide and from the very first notes he plays on the mighty Steinway – a brief but impossibly beautiful passage in dialogue with the horns – it is clear this performance is also going to be special. The piano part in Piano Concerto No.2 in B flat is less virtuosic than Brahms’ first piano concerto, but it presents significant technical challenges. It must be tackled head on without holding back and risking it being underplayed. Hough admirably rises to the challenge and in the fourth movement he handles the rhythmic contrast and the wit of the jazz-inflected Hungarianesque folk tunes with aplomb. The communication between Hough and Wigglesworth was palpable and when the piece ended both were greeted with exuberant wolf whistles (even from ‘mature’ ladies!) more frequently heard at pop concerts!
Wigglesworth is rapidly becoming a favourite with Adelaide audiences, and the ASO management has been astute to secure him as Principal Guest Conductor. Long may the association continue.
Kym Clayton
When: 6 Sep
Where: Adelaide Town Hall
Bookings: Closed