Joseph Tawadros brings the beauty of the oud to new sets of ears

Since he started performing Joseph Tawadros has crossed the East-West borders with his music and his mission to promote the beauty of the oud.

Joseph Tawadros performed his concerto for oud with Sydney Symphony Orchestra.

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His collaborations with the Australian Chamber Orchestra — which included his take on Vivaldi’s Four Seasons — as well as American jazz guitarist Mike Stern and Australia’s classical guitar duo Slava and Leonard Grigoryan have all promoted a wider understanding and appreciation of the beauties of this 12-string instrument Middle Eastern lute, and he has picked up four ARIA awards in the process.

Joined by his younger brother and master percussionist James on req — a small tambourine — the Egyptian-born virtuoso has filled concert halls throughout Australia and overseas, combining stunning artistry with a good line in banter.

For his Sydney Symphony debut he performed some of his established works — including three pieces from his deeply personal album Permission to Evaporate, recorded in 2014 shortly after the deaths of his father and mother within a year of each other.

CADENZAS

But the main item on the program was his three-movement Concerto for Oud and Orchestra, with orchestrations from Australian composer Jessica Wells. Conforming to the fast-slow-fast structure of the classical concerto, there were the conventional “conversations” between soloist and orchestra, with some nice passages for Paul Goodchild’s trumpet, Alexandre Oguey’s cor anglais and Shefali Prior’s oboe, as well as some unaccompanied cadenzas.

Occasionally James’s array of Middle Eastern percussion instruments were drowned out by the brass, but the result was a lively and vibrant work with some interesting changes of tempo and exciting interplay.

Conductor Benjamin Northey kept a watchful eye on tempo — no easy job making sure that 60 or so musicians are in time with a self-confessed “unpredictable” soloist who was born to improvise.

The second half opened with the first movement from Mozart’s Symphony No 25 — used famously in Milos Forman’s film Amadeus and chosen by Tawadros for this program.

This set the scene for the set of shorter Tawadros pieces, which included Point of Departure — a moving waltz-time “musical hug” for his late parents — a rocking Constantinople, his take on a heavy metal guitar solo, and the equally thrilling Bluegrass Nikriz, a tribute to another collaborator, banjo maestro Bela Fleck.

DETAILS

● CONCERT: Joseph Tawadros, Music of the Oud with Sydney Symphony Orchestra

● WHERE: Sydney Opera House Concert Hall

● WHEN: Friday, June 21