Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. Elder Hall. 16 Oct 2024
The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra’s fourth concert in its popular Matinee series delighted the near capacity audience. Featuring three works not often heard in local concert halls, there was something for everyone. Hummel’s Concerto for Bassoon in F provided an uncommon opportunity to hear the bassoon as a featured solo instrument, and who better to play it but the ASO’s very own Mark Gaydon!
Following what has now become the traditional musical Acknowledgement of Country, the concert began with a fairly standard reading of the Overture to Weber’s opera Euryanthe. First performed a little over two hundred years ago, Euryanthe is argued to be one of Weber’s most important operas, but like so many operas that have come before, or after it, it has slipped into relative obscurity and only the overture survives into concert programs. The overture is reputably an outstanding example of the early German Romantic style, but it struggles to really stir one’s spirits as overtures should do at the commencement of a concert. Kate Suther led the strings with aplomb and the stage was set for many more sweet and comforting sounds to come.
Conductor Nicholas Braithwaite conservatively marshalled the orchestra with not a hint of flamboyance. He has a diversity and depth of experience upon which to call – he doesn’t need to resort to ostentation – and he allowed the band to do exactly what was needed throughout the program. Wisdom shone through!
In the hands of a master like Mark Gaydon, the bassoon is an exceptionally emotional and expressive instrument, and Gaydon allowed the playfulness, particular in the third rondo vivace movement of the concerto, to come through in leaps and bounds. With most brass and woodwinds not being needed (only oboe and French horn remained), Gaydon’s bassoon filled the expanse of Elder Hall with warm and comforting sounds much like those of a baritone singer. Many in the audience took the occasional opportunity to listen attentively behind closed eyes, as did this reviewer, and the effect was transporting. Gaydon was enthusiastically applauded at the end and was brought back for two additional curtain calls.
Brahm’s Variations on a Theme of Joseph Haydn, Op.56, is an interesting work. It began its life as a piano duet but is now better known in its orchestral form, and musicologists doubt the thematic material was in fact written by Haydn. That aside, the theme – Chorale St Antoni – is lush and melodic and the eight short variations are developed in quite attention-grabbing ways. The Chorale is more evident in some variations, with only a fleeting glimpse in others, before its eventual restatement in the finale, which sees Braithwaite really launch himself into the majestic and celebratory conclusion.
The ASO’s matinee series concerts are each only about sixty minutes long, but they seem to stretch out time and pack in so much. They are pure soulful rejuvenation!
Kym Clayton
When: 16 Oct
Where: Elder Hall
Bookings: Closed
