Morgans Composers in Focus. Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. Adelaide Town Hall. 4 June 2014
“Bohemian Rhapsodies” was the second Morgans Composers in Focus concert for the season, and was generously sponsored by wealth management firm Morgans in alliance with CIMB. Had Mozart – the main event in the program - taken financial advice he might not have led such a ‘bohemian life-style’ and died in such strapped circumstances, but he certainly needed no advice when it came to composing, and his much loved ‘Piano Concerto No. 23 in A major’ was the highlight of the programme.
The locally esteemed music pedagogue Richard Chew introduced the programme and spoke eloquently about each composition and how they related, both musically and sociologically. A highlight was the insightful conversation he struck up with Howard Shelley about the Mozart and how Shelley might approach it as both conductor and pianist.
Bedřich Smetana’s overture to his very successful opera ‘The Bartered Bride’ was, unusually, written before anything else in the opera. As such it stands alone as a concert piece but also superbly foreshadows the style of the opera itself. It is spirited and rhythmic, and Shelley allowed its energy to erupt forth without compromising balance in orchestral colour.
Antonín Dvořák’s ‘Symphony No. 6 in D major’ was composed in 1880, some twenty years after ‘The Bartered Bride’ was completed, and it was a significant milestone in the ongoing development of the Czech national style for which the foundations were laid down by Smetana. Although the symphony demonstrates influences from the German classical-romantic tradition - one can hear hints of Brahms and Beethoven - it is rich with Czech folk tunes and rhythms. The ASO’s woodwinds and horns were magnificent throughout the sweeping melodies of the adagio second movement, and the clean violin lines in the scherzo third moment superbly complemented the woodwinds and brass. Again, Shelley allowed the force of the music to fill the auditorium but ensured complete clarity.
But, the main event was the engaging Mozart piano concerto, and the audience was delighted in Shelley’s pianism and his conducting from the keyboard with the score on an iPad! The allegro first movement introduces catchy and impishly playful tunes, and the allegro assai final movement is as bubbly and upbeat a finale as you will ever get, but the true drama lies in the broody adagio second movement which is scored in the somewhat rare key of F sharp minor. Shelley drew out the pathos and controlled the richness of the modern Steinway piano so that it didn’t swamp the delicateness of the musical material.
The audience’s fingers got a true work out at this concert! There were hundreds of finger tappers secretly pretending they were on the podium putting the wonderful ASO through its paces, and they loved every minute.
Kym Clayton
When: Closed
Where: Adelaide Town Hall
Bookings: Closed
