Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. Adelaide Town Hall. 20 Mar 2015
In CEO Vincent Ciccarello’s own words, the Masters Series is the ASO’s “core business” and the first concert of the 2015 series was an absolute blinder! The audience attended with high expectation, and were not disappointed. They left fulfilled and elated. The evening was a glorious celebration of musicianship, virtuosity, and lush orchestration.
Benjamin Britten’s Four Sea Interludes from the opera Peter Grimes are eery and foreboding. The awkward rising intervals of the first movement evoke melancholia and in time give way to the tempestuousness of the fourth. Guest conductor Garry Walker walked the fine line between unrepressed emotion and tight control. (This was even more evident in the Mussorgsky at the end of the evening.) However, occasionally the winds lagged just slightly behind the strings by a mere fraction of a beat –slightly annoying– but strangely it added to the sense of anticipation.
Sarah Chang played the Bruch G minor violin concerto with astonishing sensitivity. It is a lyrical composition and Chang treated the melody line as if it was her own voice and as if she was in an animated conversation with every other instrument in the orchestra. Chang was pure theatre to watch: her gesture and long sweep of the bow were almost theatrical, but the sound production was altogether sublime. She has tremendous technical skill and brought all of it to bear in what was a highly moving reading. Walker graciously allowed Chang to take center stage for much of the richly deserved standing ovation. It was her triumph, as was her performance of Ravel’s Tzigane after the interval. She expertly flaunted the full spectrum of violinist tricks and techniques and almost danced on the stage as she communed with Ravel’s testing dance rhythms. When it was over she spontaneously applauded the mighty ASO, and she was right to do so – the orchestra and Walker were at the top of their game.
Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition was originally composed as a piano solo but it is better known in its orchestrated form, especially the version by Ravel. It is so popular – the ASO last performed it in 2011 – that it is easy to forget that the composition is extremely difficult to play well; either the piano or fully orchestrated version. Walker was able to extract the full gamut of emotions that the piece offers: jollity, carefree abandon, deep introspection, pathos, and rampant zeal. Success in achieving this lies in uncompromising precision, and that is exactly what the ASO demonstrated but with adamant and deeply felt musicality. It was a treat to hear the saxophone (Damien Hurn) on the concert platform again – an all too infrequent event – but the highlight of the performance was the Con mortuis movement in which the oboes and strings almost invoked a dimension beyond this world and echoed the Britten with which the evening began.
A wonderful start to the season.
Kym Clayton
When: Closed
Where: Adelaide Town Hall
Bookings: Closed
