There’s always a lull for classical music during December and January. All the main orchestras and chamber ensembles (think the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, Musica Viva, the Sydney Symphony, among others) go into a summer hibernation, leaving the shrivelled music enthusiast bereft of his precious notes, like a dried husk on a desert island, waiting for the next cruise ship to come by and inject a bit of civilisation into his veins. (Well, perhaps not as dramatic as that, but you get the idea.)
Yes, there’s the pop concert with the Australian Philharmonic just before the New Year, and the Sydney Festival usually has a few concerts of interest (though this year’s Satie’s Vexations gave the word ‘interest’ much more ambiguity than it usually had), but there’s nothing of habit-forming substance to grind at the back of one’s molars. Enter the Sydney Symphony with their first truly classical concert of the year, Legends by the Sea.
Vladimir Ashkenazy, principal conductor and artistic advisor of the Sydney Symphony for one more year until David Robertson ousts him, was the conductor for the evening, striding onto the Concert Hall stage in his typical bustling fashion. (One hopes that Ashkenazy will continue to conduct the Sydney Symphony in the future, as he has a sincere charm that infects us all.)
First on the harmonic menu was the rather epic Lemminkainen Suite, Op.22 by Jean Sibelius. Based on episodes from the life of – wait for it – Lemminkainen, a sorcerer and hero of The Kalevala (a 19th century Finnish epic poem), it tells the progressive story of a good-looking young man who chances his hand with some maidens, then tries to kill a swan, gets killed in the process, and is brought back to life by his mother so that he might ‘return home in triumph’. (One imagines how annoyed the mother must have been who, having given life to him once already, had to go and do it again.)
The first five minutes or so of the first movement was quite captivating, yet it lost its allure as the movement kept on, the whole a bit too fragmentary for this critic’s taste. Much the same problem existed in the third movement as well. The fourth and final movement of this 55 minute epic was a lesson in constant build-up, and largely succeeded, while the highlight of the piece was the second movement, with its softness and poignancy, Alexandre Oguey on cor anglais proving himself with very smooth lines and great nuance. Worth listening to for the second and fourth movements, the entirety didn’t capture the heart as fully as one wanted it to.
After the interval came Faure’s Suite from Pelleas et Melisande, with five selections from the incidental music composed for the play. What was unusual about this was that the fourth movement, Melisande’s Song, requires a soprano (who for this concert was Jacqueline Porter) and as such is often cut from concert performances, as the piece is only about three minutes long. But get a soprano the Sydney Symphony did, and it as well worth it, Porter showing a powerful and haunting presence throughout. In contrast to the epic blusters of the Sibelius, this piece was more refined and delicate, like a crystal ball compared to a boulder. Ashkenazy pulled a great performance from the orchestra, giving us a semi-hypnotic tour of slow tragedy.
The final piece was Debussy’s La Mer, and once again Ashkenazy proved himself capable of swelling emotion – and swelling is what one needs in playing La Mer. This was a performance filled with all the spine-tingling sensations one could have asked for, as Debussy’s music – both turbulent and calm – ebbed and flowed into our ears. Indeed, if the last two pieces are anything to go by, hopefully this will be a wonderful year of music for the Sydney Symphony.
Rating: 4 stars out of 5
Legends by the Sea
Sydney Symphony
Vladimir Ashkenazy (conductor), Jacqueline Porter (soprano)
Jean Sibelius – Lemminkainen Suite, Op.22
Gabriel Faure – Suite from Pelleas et Melisande
Claude Debussy – La Mer – Three Symphonic Sketches
Sydney Opera House Concert Hall
8 February
