Sydney Symphony tuba buddies share some cheers for the big brass
There was a nice shared tuba moment between conductor Fabian Russell and SSO’s Steve Rosse after an outstanding performance of Dmitri Shostakovich’s first symphony.
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There was a nice shared tuba moment between conductor Fabian Russell and Sydney Symphony Orchestra’s Steve Rosse after an outstanding performance of Dmitri Shostakovich’s first symphony.
The principal musician raised the 13.6kg worth of brass to acknowledge not only the Sydney Town Hall audience’s applause but also the fact that the conductor had started his career at 19 as guest principal tuba with the same orchestra. Russell has since gone on to conduct all of Australia’s major orchestras as well as spending 26 seasons as Associate Conductor of the Australian Youth Orchestra and founding The Orchestra Project, a training ensemble for the development of our best young orchestral musicians.
The hour-long concert was subtitled Breakthroughs and featured two other works on the program – the world premiere of Hustle a very brief percussion trio by young Melbourne composer Michael Bakrncev, in which he references his Macedonian heritage, and John Adams’ 1978 work Shaker Loops, originally written for string septet, which established him as one of the leaders of the minimalists.
Hustle, performed by Timothy Constable on vibraphone, Rebecca Lagos on marimba and Mark Robinson on drums – part of the SSO’s 50 Fanfares Project of new works by Australian composers – was designed to give the listener “extra motivation”. A pulse on the vibes gradually builds as the other instruments join in, developing into a frenzied climax with rhythms and tunes loosely based on Macedonian folk tunes.
CIRCLES
After the percussion instruments were removed the orchestra’s string section, sitting in a semicircle, performed Adams’ work inspired by the dancing and singing of the Shakers sect which flourished in America in the early 19th century. Founded in New England, the “Shaking Quakers” believed in pacifism, equality of the sexes and the Second Coming. They are also perhaps the only religious group to condemn itself to death by banning marriage and procreation. Amazingly there is apparently one surviving active Shaker village.
Their suppressed sexual energy went into their beautiful floral designs, austere furniture and plain architecture, and of course those amazing dancing circles which inspired Adams to write his groundbreaking minimalist masterpiece. Its four movements require the string orchestra to bow repeated notes at furious speeds with this shimmering tremolo underpinned by sustained pedal notes in the lower strings and harmonic slides among the fiddles and violas.
At times it sounds like a massive beehive, while the shifting pulses and loops set up a hypnotic effect.
The young Shostakovich shot out of the starting blocks when he left the conservatorium in his native St Petersburg. His first symphony was his graduation piece and when it was premiered in 1926 it rapidly established him, so much so he no longer needed to supplement the family income by working as a pianist in the silent movie house.
Much of the symphony is filmic – especially the last movement where you can imagine a Buster Keaton-style train chase and a little cameo scene between two lovers in Andrew Haveron’s solo violin and Francesco Celata’s clarinet. A piano adds extra drive to the second and final movements and all departments of the orchestra get their moment. Shefali Pryor’s oboe solo that opens the slow third movement was a standout, as was Catherine Hewgill’s cello solo in the final movement, and the brass and percussion departments had a busy time of it.
Russell kept a firm control on this multifaceted work – at times visceral, at others cool and spacious and often with the composer’s trademark sarcasm and penchant for the grotesque just below the service – setting well-judged tempos and letting the precocious student’s music speak for itself.
DETAILS
●CONCERT Sydney Symphony Orchestra: Adams & Shostakovich
●WHERE Sydney Town Hall
●WHEN Thursday, May 27
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