For those of you who may have been wondering, it was the Overture to Cosi Fan Tutte. That’s the opera of Mozart’s – Cosi Fan Tutte – and the overture to it. So if you were to see this opera by Mozart – Cosi Fan Tutte – the overture is what you’d hear right at the start. The piece of music at the beginning of Cosi Fan Tutte, it was. What’s that, dear reader? Did you not understand? It was the overture to Cosi Fan Tutte. Have you got it now? Does everybody in the room at the City Recital Hall also know what it is? Excellent. Then that’ll be our Mozart Mystery Moment for this evening, sans mystery.
The delights of the Mozart in the City concerts given by the Sydney Symphony throughout the year – four in all – are many. They’re in the City Recital Hall, for one, which means a better acoustic than the Concert Hall of the Sydney Opera House. They usually have some slightly adventurous programming to contrast with the Mozart, for two, with Schreker’s Kammersymphonie earlier in the year, Hindemith’s Concerto for woodwinds, harp and orchestra in this concert, the premiere (in August) of Mary Finsterer’s Lake Ice – Double Bass Concerto, and Shostakovich’s Chamber Symphony Op.83a later on. (This programming, too, involves orchestras of a lesser size, and enables the symphony to play pieces that would not be the wisest of choices for the cavernous Concert Hall.) And, for three, they have the always intriguing Mozart Mystery Moment, a short encore that’s not announced until it’s published on the internet the next morning. One has to guess, you see. (The Sydney Symphony is all for staving off dementia in its audience, though they haven’t resorted to giving out a free sudoku to each person yet.)
Yet German conductor Hansjorg Schellenberger decided to announce said encore with nary a warning. ‘The Overture to Cosi Fan Tutte,’ he said. (That’s Cosi Fan Tutte’s overture.) There was a bemused and ever so slightly panicked murmur from the audience. (‘Did you hear that, Maude? He said what the mystery moment was.’ ‘You’re right, John, he’s not supposed to tell us what it is.’ ‘Oh no, oh no, think of the children, the children!’) There was also a rather awkward moment just before that, where the applause finished before the conductor had a chance to come out and give the encore, though he still did. (Theoretically, as the Mozart Mystery Moment is mentioned in the program, it isn’t strictly an encore, but usually it is treated as such.) And for mentioning all of this, the encore itself was a bit of a letdown – nothing particularly special. (Just so we’re clear, the encore was the overture to Cosi Fan Tutte.)
The concert began with Paul Hindemith’s Concerto for woodwinds, harp and orchestra, with Janet Webb on flute, Shefali Pryor on oboe, Lawrence Dobell on clarinet, Roger Brooke on bassoon, and Louise Johnson on harp. (These are the various principals/associate principals from the Sydney Symphony itself.) After the masterpiece and master performance that was Franz Schreker’s Kammersymphonie at the previous concert (with Roger Benedict conducting), this was a slight disappointment, but only in comparison. The piece itself is a fine one, and the performance here was robust, with a nice sense of ensemble from the concertists. It was a tight 16 minutes, filled with a wonderful batch of colours.
Then came Mozart’s Gran Partita – Serenade in B flat for 13 instruments, K361, with its barrage of wind and singular double bass taking to the platform. (If anyone has seen the film Amadeus, this is the piece that Salieri first hears of Mozart’s. If anyone, too, has seen the movie Bright Star, about the poet Keats, this is the piece that, at a point in the film, is sung by a human orchestra, to entrancing effect.) It’s the Adagio (the third movement) that’s often the highlight of the seven movement piece, and such was the case here, with oboist Diana Doherty excelling (as, it should be noted, she always tends to do). The program tells us that ‘the amazing thing is that the seven movements of wind music, heard consecutively, are never wearying’, which perhaps sets off some alarm bells, but the note tells the truth. It was a very well polished performance, and showed Schellenberger at his best.
Then there was the encore – the overture to Cosi Fan Tutte, in case you don’t remember.
Rating: 4 stars out of 5
Mozart’s Gran Partita
Sydney Symphony
Hanjsorg Schellenberger (conductor), Janet Webb (flute), Shefali Pryor (oboe), Lawrence Dobell (clarinet), Roger Brooke (bassoon), Louise Johnson (harp)
Paul Hindemith – Concerto for woodwinds, harp and orchestra
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Gran Partita – Serenade in B flat for 13 instruments, K361
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Overture to Cosi Fan Tutte
City Recital Hall, Sydney
30 May
