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W.A.Symphony Orchestra Andreas Haefliger (piano) Matthias Bamert (conductor)

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W.A.Symphony Orchestra
Andreas Haefliger (piano)

reviewed by Neville Cohn

 

Matthias Bamert (conductor)

Perth Concert Hall

 

Making his first appearance with the W.A.Symphony Orchestra, Swiss musician Andreas Haefliger was soloist in Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A minor.

Over many decades, I have lost count of the number of times I have listened to this ageless masterpiece – in live performance, on radio and recordings – but I cannot recall a reading so startlingly forthright, even aggressive, as Haefliger’s. With its heroics, it was an unusual take on a much-loved concerto.

In the famous cadenza towards the conclusion of the first movement, the soloist weighed in with a thrustingly in-your-face treatment of the notes that took this listener aback – so much so that the poetry inherent in much of the writing took second place to muscularity. But the extended trills that play a significant part from the end of the cadenza to the conclusion of the movement were near-flawlessly spun.

Here was an interpretation that was overwhelmingly (although not exclusively) virile and passionate in its treatment of the score but rather less persuasive in evoking the tenderness and quiet reflection that lie at the heart of much of the writing. And from a seat in the 17th row, there was in the finale what sounded an over-generous use of the damper pedal which often blurred outlines and lessened the impact of Schumann’s fascinating rhythmic intricacies.

Throughout, Matthias Bamert was a loyally supportive conductor, meticulously anticipating his compatriot’s every musical intention and drawing from the WASO a response that was, for the most part, as vigorous as the playing of the soloist.

Warm applause and a floral bouquet wrapped in shiny paper elicited an encore that, coming after such a robust reading of the concerto, was a delightful surprise. In his account of Schumann’s The Prophet Bird (from Waldszenen), Haefliger beautifully captured the fragile, restrained essence of the music which, with extraordinary authenticity, evokes images of this curious fowl’s idiosyncratic body language.

Despite outbursts of unwanted and maddeningly insistent clapping between movements of Mahler’s vast and sprawling Symphony No 1, these discourtesies (which broke out like an unsightly rash) seemed not noticeably to put Bamert and his forces off their stroke as this mammoth opus unfolded. In passing: if, at the conclusion of a movement, the conductor had held his baton raised, this – based on decades of observing audience attitudes – is usually sufficient for even compulsive handclappers to get the message and hold their peace.

It is no mean achievement for a conductor to commit a work of this length and complexity to memory – and the confidence that stems from that grasp of the score seemed to rub off, as it were, on the musicians of the orchestra.

It was a good night for the strings, not least cellos and double basses who responded to Mahler’s demands with stylish aplomb. And apart from some sour notes from the off-stage trumpets early in the piece, the WASO’s brass players were on their musical toes, especially the horn subsection, all eight of whom stood as they played the closing pages of Mahler’s Titan.

As curtainraiser, we heard Carl Vine’s V which, with its fanfares and syncopated rhythms, sounded very much more convincing in the near-perfect acoustic environment of the Concert Hall than when first encountered at an open air performance at Langley Park some while ago.

Copyright 2004 Neville Cohn


Symphony under the Spanish Stars

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W.A.Symphony Orchestra

Pioneer Women’s Memorial, Kings Park

 

reviewed by Neville Cohnslava

 

If, at a performance given by the W.A.Symphony Orchestra at Perth’s acoustically perfect Concert Hall, a number of concertgoers brought picnic hampers with them from which they extracted platters of rice salad, cheese and tomato sandwiches, a bottle of champagne loudly popped and slices of rock melon which they proceeded to variously devour and drink, it would cause an outcry and a request to leave the venue immediately.

But if the same scenario plays out on the beautifully grassed, gently sloping grounds around the Pioneer Women’s Memorial in Kings Park while listening to the WASO, no one would raise an eyebrow. And that was very much the case when an audience of some three thousand had their picnic dinners as twilight fell over this idyllic setting and the local ducks waddled importantly around the grounds in the hope of a free feed. The weather (which can make or break an evening of this sort) was near-perfect.

 

As an hour-long prelude to the program proper, we heard Guapo, an instrumental ensemble that focusses primarily on the music of Piazzolla, more of which would be heard later in the evening. It was a thoroughly professional presentation.

Music amplified by electronic means seldom sounds entirely satisfactory, certainly not as it would reach the listener in, say, the Concert Hall with its wondrously fine acoustics. And having a near-constant, if relatively muted, input from an open-air concert being given at the WACA ground by Fleetwood Mac was not a welcome contribution to the proceedings. But, these reservations notwithstanding, there was more than sufficient evidence that the WASO is getting back to the form that made so many concerts memorable in 2003.

Extracts from Manuel de Falla’s El Amor Brujo did not fare well, though, largely due, for much of the time, to conductor Benjamin Northey’s relentlessly rigid rhythms which lent a mechanical quality to the performance. Later, there was rather more rhythmic give and take in a rare airing of Gershwin’s Cuban Overture.

A brief weakening of concentration and an occasional slip of the finger aside, guitarist Slava Grigoryan did well in Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez, although in the opening pages of the concerto, guitar sound was overly amplified. But it was in an arrangement for guitar of Albeniz’s piano piece Sevilla that Grigoryan came fully into his own in playing that was stylish and, in its more virtuosic episodes, nimble, controlled and accurate. And I liked the expressiveness and beauty of tone with which he essayed the slower passages of the piece.

Cathie Travers, whose musical versatility is a byword, contributed to the concert not only as accordionist but also as arranger. I very much liked her re-working of Piazzolla’s Milonga del Angel which, to a notable extent, conveyed that haunting, bittersweet quality that lies at the core of so much of Piazzolla’s music. Most of the Argentinian tango-meister’s music was conceived for small groups of musicians; it’s seldom heard in arrangements for symphony-size orchestras. Certainly, it was a new – and engaging – listening experience for me.

There was more Piazzolla but in more intimate mode in Romance del Diablo with Travers playing a veteran Titano accordion in ensemble with Grigoryan, Graeme Gilling (keyboard), Daniel Kossov (violin) and Boguslaw Szczepaniak (double bass). Here, too, the essence of Piazzolla’s tango-based ideas were captured like a moth in the gentlest of hands.

Both these arrangements deserve to be heard under better acoustic circumstances.

In passing: there were roars of good-natured laughter (doubtless due to Western Power’s lamentable handling of the power crisis a short while ago) when an offical from that utility drew the winning ticket from a barrel to give a lucky concertgoer $500’s worth of electricity.

 

Copyright 2004


West Australian Symphony Orchestra: Celebrating 75 Years by Marcia Harrison

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Australian Symphony Orch- Celebrating 75 Years

Australian Symphony Orch- Celebrating 75 Years

reviewed by Neville Cohn

WASO Holdings Pty Ltd


rrp $49-95 plus $8 postage and packing


telephone (08) 9326 0011 or e-mail [email protected]

Although, compared to earlier times, Western Australia’s music flagship currently sails in relatively tranquil waters, this was far from the case when what was to become the West Australian Symphony Orchestra was first launched. Over three-quarters of a century, this was a craft that, particularly in early days, almost foundered in turbulent weather, might well have been withdrawn from Service – even scuppered – by those of little faith who held the purse strings. It survived a near-mutiny by crew intensely dissatisfied with its captain/conductor, weathering these and other squalls and sails today with a ship’s company that is as dedicated and skilled as at any time in its eventful three-quarters of a century.

Marcia Harrison’s carefully researched chronicle of the WASO’s 75 years makes absorbing reading for the most part. Brimming with figures and facts about an orchestra at work and play, it abounds in photographs that will take many an older musician or concertgoer on a journey down memory lane. And younger readers will find abundant information about pioneering days when the WASO travelled often terrible roads to far-flung outposts of the state to bring good music to many who would otherwise have gone without the experience of live music.

This is a book that, while fastidiously marshalling the details of what was played by whom and where, focuses no less minutely on the extra-mural activities of those who made up the orchestra. Many a musician in early days had to resort to moonlighting to keep body and soul together. Tony Federici was a case in point. The WASO’s principal trombone, he was also a barber who made a specialty of cutting the hair of the children of his many WASO colleagues. He could, also, double on mandolin. Another versatile figure was violinist Paul Spittel who could, when needed, also turn his hand to clarinet – and play bassoon parts on bass clarinet. And long-time principal clarinet Jack Harrison was no less virtuosic on harmonica.

In the WASO’s earlier days, there were subscription series – sadly no longer ­ that were offered beyond the confines of Perth, such as in Albany. Especially in early days, the significance of the WASO to the state could hardly be exaggerated. It was not until 1962, for instance, that Perth concertgoers had their first chance to listen to an overseas orchestra, in this case the London Philharmonic.

Harrison’s chronicle provides a refreshingly warts-and-all survey of the many who guided the destiny of the WASO, their failings and foibles as carefully and entertainingly described as their more attractive attributes.

But in a book of this nature, it is for the most part impossible to do more than make passing mention of the pageant of characters who crowd its pages. Yet, many of these musicians, past and present, have professional and personal stories that are variously novel, tragic, inspirational and/or sensational. They deserve to be placed on the record – and this could well be fertile fare for a fascinating afterword for future editions of this splendid book.

© October 2003