Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. Adelaide Town Hall. 12 July 2019
The fifth Master Series concert of the current season marked Maestro Nicholas Carter’s last appearance as principal conductor with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. The program he presented was uncompromising and one of contrasts, and it left us in no doubt of his talent and that his star is in the ascendant.
As he has done before, Carter arranged his orchestra with the first and second violins on opposite sides of the Adelaide Town Hall stage. It has the effect of highlighting the separate voices of the two parts, and where it is not necessary for the performance of Dvořák’s Violin Concerto in A minor, it is a must for Bruckner’s sophisticated Symphony No.5 in B flat, but more on that later.
Violinist Grace Clifford, who is the ASO’s first designated Emerging Artist in Association, was soloist in the Dvořák. We have come to expect excellent technique and bright and crisp performances from Clifford, and this occasion was no exception. In the first movement she coaxed without demanding fortes, and the carefully executed crescendi were exquisite. In the interconnected second and third movements we saw her deliver delicacy without sentimentality and balance it with the joyous lyrical robustness of the ever popular main theme of third movement.
The Bruckner is a brute of a thing. It is likely the most intellectual of all of his symphonies, and it tests the listener as much as it does the orchestra and the conductor. After accepting a parting gift from ASO Managing Director Vincent Ciccarello, Carter addressed the audience from the podium and acknowledged that Bruckner is not everyone’s cup of musical tea, and that many scratch their heads about his fifth symphony as they ponder the whys and wherefores of its structure. Carter aptly compared the composition to a pilgrimage in which one deals with multiple contrasting emotions, realisations and truths as one grapples with fundamental existential questions. To emphasise contrasts and to bring questions and their answers into stark relief, Carter arranged the orchestra and balanced their acoustic dynamics to produce antiphonal effects. It again demonstrates the care and understanding he brings to his readings and why he is much appreciated by Adelaide audiences
Bruckner’s fifth comes in at around eighty minutes, but it didn’t feel like that. The performance almost has a timeless quality about it, but just enough time for it to carry the listener to all manner of places and to ponder ‘what’s it all about?’
Thankfully it is au revoir to Nicholas Carter and not adieu, for he will be back in a guest conductor capacity in 2020.
Kym Clayton
When: 12 July
Where: Adelaide Town Hall
Bookings: Closed
Adelaide Wind Orchestra. Concordia College. 6 Jul 2019
If a concert is successful, then part of the credit must go to the artistic directors who programmed the event. In the case of the Adelaide Wind Orchestra’s latest concert, the programme had everything: traditional Sousa march tunes, a reimagined anthem, evocative modern compositions that challenged preconceptions of what a wind orchestra is capable of, and superb musicianship and dizzying technical mastery.
This concert, dubbed Thunder and Lightning, had it all.
It is clear from the outset that conductor David John Lang knows what he wants in each of the six pieces. From Sousa’s ever popular The Thunderer, Lang coaxes precise phrasing and superbly synchronised tuttis. (When it’s otherwise, wind ensembles can almost evoke feelings of profound grief!)
Jess Langston Turner’s You’ll Come Matilda (Endlessly Waltzing) is an intelligent reimagining of the iconic Waltzing Matilda. It involves much percussion and the five percussionists are almost run off their feet as they transition through the various instruments without missing a beat, literally (one did wonder whether the physical location of the instruments was optimal). The almost formless final section evokes the watery mystery of the billabong and is greatly enhanced by the carefully crafted intonation of the entire ensemble.
Morton Gould’s Symphony for Band is an excellent showcase for the talents of the orchestra. There are well controlled extended crescendos that are dynamically finely balanced. The percussion again displays sparkling clarity. The muted trombones and trumpets are especially sweet.
Roshanne Etezady’s Shoutout gets its Australian premiere, and it is indeed a surprise. On occasion it seems to channel the great American composer John Adams as it relentlessly pursues a central theme in a minimalist way but with almost cacophonous results. This cannot be said for Sarah Byron’s superb reading of Ingolf Dahl’s Concerto for Alto Saxophone, however! Lang opines from the podium that for many in the audience this performance is what brought them out on a cold winter’s evening. High praise indeed and he isn’t wrong.
Byron’s performance alone is worth the price of the ticket. Her intonation is precise, her fingering in the very high altissmo passages is apt, and her control of overtones is near perfect, though perhaps with some early tentativeness. Lang ensures that the ensemble never dominates, and the overall acoustic balance between soloist and ensemble enhances the performance. Lang’s treatment of the spiky rhythms in the middle movement is most pleasing.
The concert returns to where it started out with a dreamy performance of the second movement from Ira Hearshen’s Symphony on Themes of John Philip Sousa. Based on Sousa’s The Thunderer, Lang is able to evoke a sonic landscape that traverses feelings of mystery and contemplation through to national pride. Stirring stuff!
The Adelaide Wind orchestra has again come up trumps with a well-designed and fabulously executed program that once more demonstrates that we have a world class ensemble in our midst.
Kym Clayton
When: 6 Jul
Where: Concordia College
Bookings: Closed
Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. Adelaide Town Hall. 28 Jun 2019
The fourth concert in the ASO’s Master Series served up a world premiere sandwich, and it was ever so tasty.
For its world premiere performance, Israeli composer Avner Dorman’s Double Concerto for Violin and Cello sat comfortably between Elgar’s double treat Chanson de matin and Chanson de nuit, and Tchaikovsky’s monumental Symphony No 5. The chansons and symphony are rooted in romanticism, replete with lush and strongly proclaimed melodies that are developed with interest and clear intent. Similarly, Dorman’s Double Concerto has plenty of melody but the real interest lies in its witty dialogue between the violin and cello. At times they echo and double each other, which then gives way to pursuit and escape while the orchestration all the time provides a substantial and inventive frame for the violin and cello’s pursuits.
Pinchas Zukerman on violin and Amanda Forsyth on cello know each other very well on a range of levels, and their understanding of what makes each other ‘tick’ was especially evident in tonight’s incisive performance. It was a delight to see their superlative musicianship in action, both separately and as a partnership. They fed off each other and the whole was greater than the sum of their individual parts. Dorman was sitting in the audience and his appreciation of Zukerman and Forsyth’s musicality was abundantly clear. Although Dorman knows his own score inside out, he surely would have gained deeper insights into his own creation because of the adeptness and acuity of Zukerman and Forsyth’s performance.
Benjamin Northey conducted the concerto. He was careful to establish and maintain an aural balance between orchestra and the soloists, and allow the violin and cello to be prominent and clearly heard where appropriate. He also allowed the dramatic tension in the dialogue to flow through to the various sections of the orchestra resulting in acuity of attack with much of interest to hear and see. Northey’s reading now becomes the standard against which future performances will be measured.
The repertoire is not awash with double concertos for violin and cello and the majority are post-romantic. Dorman’s contribution is a significant one.
Zukerman swapped his violin for the conductor’s baton as he led the ASO in the Elgar and in a passionate reading of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No 5 in E minor. This symphony is perhaps Tchaikovsky’s best known if for no other reason than the famous horn melody at the beginning of the second movement, which was superbly executed by principal horn Adrian Uren. Zukerman was perhaps a little more casual in extracting the most from the moments of relative peace and calm in the first movement, but by the time the fourth was well under way his knowledge of the composition and his command of the orchestra was abundantly clear. A glance here and a barely perceptible gesture there was all that was needed for the orchestra to unleash its musical forces and leave the audience warmed and very well satisfied.
Kym Clayton
When: 28 Jun
Where: Adelaide Town Hall
Bookings: Closed
Master Series 1. Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. Adelaide Town Hall. 29 Mar 2019
Nicholas Carter, Principal Conductor of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, has never conducted better than he did for this concert, the first in the ASO’s 2019 Master Series. He was on fire.
The generously long program comprised Elgar’s In the South (Alassio) – Overture, Op.50, Sibelius’ Violin Concerto in D minor, Op.47, Ravel’s La valse – poème chorégraphique, and Resphigi’s Pines of Rome, P.141. Although all of these pieces have been previously essayed by the ASO, and each deserves to be heard frequently, there is so much other music composed by ‘the masters’ that the ASO has not yet played that one wonders why the entire program should be repeated within nine years.
Each composition on the program is expansive in melody and orchestration and each has its own special interest. The Elgar foregrounds the viola and the horn. Principal viola Caleb Wright performs a disarmingly beautiful solo that is such a joy to hear on an instrument that is rarely in the spotlight. Adrian Uren excels in his leadership of the horns, and the dialogue between the combined strings and the horns is quite transporting.
Sibelius’ entire oeuvre contains only one concerto, his violin concerto, and it is one of the high points in the catalogue. The ASO last played it in 2016 with Grace Clifford on violin. It was a very pleasing performance but tonight Dutch violinist Simone Lamsma gives an object lesson in how it should be performed. At the end of the first movement, the audience spontaneously broke into heartfelt applause, which, incidentally, gave Lamsma time to re-tune her “Lynarski” Stradivarius violin which was showing signs of misbehaviour in Adelaide’s currently volatile weather conditions.
The concerto is atypical and breaks some compositional conventions, such as the inclusion of an extended cadenza for the violin in the first movement when one would otherwise expect the main thematic material to be developed. The cadenza is virtuosic and introspective and Lamsma shows a deep affinity for the musical narrative which is the real secret: her undoubted technical expertise then has something to play with. The brass section is particularly fine during the adagio second movement, and Carter clearly enjoys himself during the final allegro and all but dances his way through the waltz-like second theme. But this is just a warm-up for the Ravel!
Carter is exceptionally light on his feet as he takes the ASO through La valse. Again, without a baton in his hand, his instructions to the orchestra comes through his swaying body and through his clenched then relaxed hand gestures. His direction is precise and elegant and the orchestra’s response is nothing less than one would expect from a world class outfit.
The Pines of Rome is a favourite amongst concert goers. It is scored for a large orchestra and has surprises! Not only does the pipe organ get an outing, so do buccini, which are ancestors of the trombone and trumpet. There is also an expanded percussion section and recorded birdsong! By any means, this is an exciting work to hear and to see. The Town Hall stage is enlarged for the performance so that the orchestra actually fits! Carter’s control of the musical forces is adroit. The dynamism between the sections is keenly balanced throughout, and there is a logic in how one movement is contrasted with the others. The final climax is truly that, and not just more of the same.
Resphigi’s use of the woodwind is quite dramatic, and Carter is right to give a special bow to the section and especially to Dean Newcombe on principal clarinet.
For whatever reason, the ASO titled the concert From the Mists of Time, but one thing is certain, Carter is certainly not that. He is in the ascendant, and with impressive lucidity.
Kym Clayton
When: 29 Mar
Where: Adelaide Town Hall
Bookings: Closed
Australian Chamber Orchestra. Adelaide Town Hall. 19 Mar 2019
In this particular tour, the Australian Chamber Orchestra serves an Australian premiere of a work (written in 2008) that is bookended by orchestral arrangements of Prokofiev and Beethoven string quartets. It’s an interesting sandwich, but not entirely satisfying.
For many, the string quartet is the apotheosis of chamber music. It is an exacting form and in the hands of an appropriately skilled composer, the result is exhilarating. But then to take a well written quartet and arrange it for a string orchestra is something else indeed, and for it to work the arranger needs to be skilful and needs to choose their source material very well.
Guest director and lead violinist Lorenza Borrani prepared the arrangements of the Prokofiev and the Beethoven, and she clearly knows what she is doing. Prokofiev’s Violin Sonata No.1 in F minor, Op.80 is arguably better suited to being arranged for string orchestra than Beethoven’s String Quartet in F, Op.135, his final work. The two quartets were written at dramatic times in the lives of their composers, and the pall of death and finality pervades both compositions. Although Beethoven’s quartets – regarded by many as pre-eminent in their genre – possess structure and musical ‘might’ that might suit it to being exploited by a larger ensemble, Borrani’s arrangement masks the tension and drama of the first movement, but allows the playfulness to come through in the second with more obvious dialogue.
The Prokofiev is altogether different. The ruminating undercurrent flows throughout, even when the spiky and dissonant melody threatens to become something else as it readies to soar into something lyrical. The cellos and single bass in the first movement are as one – the playing is masterful, and the second movement is almost concerto-esque. The undulating violin lines in the third movement are imbued with a wistfulness, especially from Borrani, and the result is at times an eerie premonition of another world. All is shattered in the final movement with its robust tutti opening that gives way to an exquisite display of pizzicato.
The filling of the sandwich is the contemporary composition Such Different Paths by Dobrinka Tabakova. Next to the Prokofiev it is the highlight of the evening which deserves to be listened to repeatedly. It is a composition that reveals itself to be much more complex than one thinks it is. On the surface there appears to be no obvious musical narrative. It comprises a succession of often languid melodies that taken together border on being described as ‘ambient’ music, but this is to sell the piece short. The musical threads are exposed with crystal clarity by the orchestra, and then in the blink of an eye the tonality changes, and clarity gives way to haziness and seductive droning sounds that shift into dance rhythms, and the journey continues. Yes, it needs to be listened to again and again.
At the end of the concert the members of the ACO smile and congratulate each other, as they usually do, but the solidarity doesn’t quite seem as obvious and passionate and spontaneous as it usually is. Maybe the Beethoven arrangement wasn’t quite the piece to end with?
Kym Clayton
When: 19 Mar
Where: Adelaide Town Hall
Bookings: Closed