ACO starts 2018 with something old, something new
THE Australian Chamber Orchestra promised to open its 2018 season “with a bang” and it pretty well succeeded with a mixture of the old and the new.
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- Magnificent end to Mozart magic
- Mozart for the fevered brow
- Journey of light and shade
- Double Decca slice of piano history
THE Australian Chamber Orchestra promised to open its 2018 season “with a bang” and it pretty well succeeded with a mixture of the old and the new and an injection of young musicians for its grand finale.
The big finish was one of artistic director Richard Tognetti’s string orchestra arrangements of a much-loved chamber work, in this case Brahms’ second string sextet, which was originally scored for two violins, two violas and two cellos.
The aim, Tognetti announced, was to “democratise” the work, using massed musicians to reach a massed audience. It was also somewhat of a political statement as the ACO swelled their ranks to 30 musicians with young elite students from Canberra’s Australian National Academy of Music, which nearly went to the wall in 2008 when the Rudd government withdrew funding, only to restore the lifeline again after students staged demonstrations.
The work, written when Brahms was briefly engaged but chose to marry his music instead, is a stirring piece when played in symphonic proportions, by turns passionate and yearning over its four movements. The ever-secretive composer interwove his jilted loved one Agathe’s initials into the score, scant recompense you feel.
PREMIERE
The concert marked the 20th anniversary for two of the ACO’s core players — violinist Aiko Goto and principal bass Maxime Bibeau, who commissioned a concerto for the instrument by American composer Missy Mazzoli and who gave its world premiere performance in this concert.
Mazzoli was fascinated by the 400-year-old instrument itself which had been hidden away in a monastery for centuries, and imagined all the musical styles that must have been played on it. In the attractive piece called Dark with Excessive Bright after a quote from Milton’s Paradise Lost, Bibeau put the instrument through its paces with some wild leaping runs, plenty of double stopping, some rhythmical bow work and eerie harmonics.
The climax was a lovely duet with the double bass of ANAM’s David Campbell.
The ACO all but danced themselves, playing with their meticulous bowing and their sound which combines earthy energy with beauty of line
The other new work on the program, Prince of the Clouds, was a double violin concerto written by English Grammy-nominated composer Anna Clyne, featuring the ACO’s Ike See and Glenn Christiansen in a work of contrasts between serene lyricism and aggressive stabbing chords.
This was followed by the other “old” element on the program, Tchaikovsky’s well-loved Serenade for Strings which starts out as a tribute to his great hero Mozart but ends, inevitably, with a dance-like Russian finale.
In between we get a gorgeous waltz — the best known of all the movements — to which the ACO all but danced themselves, playing with their meticulous bowing and their sound which combines earthy energy with beauty of line.
The concert will be performed again at City Recital Hall Angel Place on Tuesday, February 13, at 8pm; Wednesday, February 14, at 7pm, and Friday, February 16, at 1.30pm.
DETAILS
● CONCERT: Australian Chamber Orchestra
● WHERE: Sydney Opera House Concert Hall
● WHEN: Sunday, February 11