Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. Festival Theatre. 14 Feb 2014
This year’s season opening gala was an all Russian program (apart from the encores) about love inspired music. After all, it’s Valentine’s Day. But, when is a concert a gala performance rather than just a concert? When it’s an event of course!
Exactly one year ago to the day I wrote a review of the 2013 ASO season opening and said, “So, what makes a gala concert? Is it just the musical programming: important but popular compositions played well by a large orchestra? I think not and I hope that the ASO management might give some thought to this. Future ‘gala’ concerts might be marketed differently. For example: patrons could be encouraged to dress up in their finery; to enjoy food and wine before, during or after the performance (special deals with restaurants around town?); a souvenir program that is fundamentally different to what is normally available; having the conductor speak to the audience from the podium; having mini musical ‘events’ in the foyer before the concert starts, and during interval, and at the end; and having the bar open when the show is over!”
Well, I don’t resile from any of that and so it was pleasing to see that the bar was open after last night’s season opening; that there was live music in the foyer and there was a little bit of repartee on stage from Vincent Ciccarello, the ASO’s new Chief Executive, and from Guest Conductor Garry Walker. But it’s still not enough – it’s still not an event and with tonight also being the opening of the Fringe Festival Adelaide audiences are definitely in event mode.
However, what did make the concert special was the dynamic personality and athletic pianism of Alexander Gavrylyuk, and especially his encore of the spectacular Concert Paraphrase on Mozart’s ever-popular Rondo alla Turca composed by contemporary Russian piano virtuoso Arcadi Volodos. Gavrylyuk’s performance was dazzling, and when he arched his back with the final flourish it was almost as if he was channelling the first ever pop star Franz Liszt!
Gavrylyuk and the ASO also performed Rachmaninoff’s emotionally charged Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini, and throughout Gavrylyuk almost treated the piece as if it was a piano version of the Kama Sutra! He joyfully played and toyed with the score; he teased and caressed the keyboard and urged the music to heights of passion and then sat back and let it all calm down before inextricably driving it to crescendo. (Have I taken the imagery too far?) His phenomenal technique, timing and treatment of the dynamics and phrasing was just first rate, and he was expertly assisted by Walker who skilfully ensured that the piano was always the focus and never dominated by the orchestra.
Walker’s re-positioning of the brass to centre upstage and well away from the double basses, who were now able to stretch out in a single rank rather than two, seemed to facilitate precision synchronising of the brass and winds with the rest of the orchestra – not always easy in the Festival Theatre – but it did seem to smudge some of the individual instrumental ‘textures’ in Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture, which began tentatively.
The program concluded with Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade, a masterpiece of orchestral colour. Walker handled the ever-changing rhythms skilfully and the exoticness of Arabia took flight. The winds, brass and horn were in exceptional form especially in the final section, which depicts a shipwreck. Guest Concertmaster Elizabeth Layton musically embodied the Princess Scheherazade with her understated but delicately controlled and phrased violin solos. Walker is also quite athletic on the podium, and demands to be watched. This was most evident in the orchestral encore of Bartok’s Romanian Folk Dances that rounded off a musically very enjoyable evening, even if it wasn’t a gala!
Kym Clayton
When: Closed
Where: Festival Theatre
Bookings: Closed
