Clearly the woodwind section of the Sydney Symphony is on the very verge of outright revolt. Brass, too. Indeed, any musician who can’t talk and play their instrument at the same time seems to be gearing up for a hostile takeover of the orchestra. (Not allowed to talk while playing your instrument? Sounds like censorship to me!) First it began with the very wind-centric pieces at their Mozart in the City concert last week, namely Hindemith’s Concerto for woodwinds, harp and orchestra, and Mozart’s Gran Partita – Serenade for 13 instruments, 12 of the 13 requiring air to be blown. And now, with the Sydney Symphony’s Organ Symphony concert, we find yet another riotous bubble: Frank Martin’s Concerto for seven wind instruments, timpani, percussion and strings. Once again there were wind players centre-stage. Then, to make even the most stony board chairman nervous, the conductor for the evening, Charles Dutoit, is a Frenchman – and who knows more about overthrowing power than the French? (It should be noted that Dutoit is actually Swiss – or at least born in Switzerland – but his name sounds French to me, and what conspiracy theory can hold its head up high without a few leaps of logic?) I can see, in the not too distant future, the symphony having been overwhelmed, and the audiences being subjected to oboe and flute concertos, and wind-based pieces up the wazoo. (Up the kazoo, even.)
The thing is, all these pieces with their woodwind agendas and respiratory politics – well, they’ve been rather good. Indeed, it’s very hard for one to find something to complain about, and when the oboists come banging on the gates with their multiple demands (and there will be many demands), based on their performance, one can’t think of any reason why they shouldn’t get what they ask for. Nor the flautists. Nor the trumpeters. Nor any of them. And are there some hitherto unexposed reasons for Vladimir Ashkenazy’s departure from the head position, as he’s replaced by David Robertson next year? Is Ashkenazy, perhaps, a man for strings and pianos, while Robertson favours the more breathy members? Who knows, who knows. In the meantime, at least, we’ll still have the music.
And what music it was. And what a conductor Dutoit is. The program tells us that he is ‘one of today’s most sought-after conductors, having performed with all the major orchestras of the five continents,’ and it’s easy to see why. (It’s also easy to see that Antarctica needs to get itself an orchestra post-haste.) The concert began with Mozart’s Symphony No.29 in A, K201, which was confidently rattled off by all involved. (The first movement, though, was somewhat sluggish – a common problem in its interpretations that Dutoit didn’t quite solve.) But the Andante was superbly rendered, and the rest of the symphony built to a satisfying end.
Frank Martin’s concerto came next, with its seven wind instruments and timpani, and out of the two concertos heard this fortnight, the Martin came out best. Martin wrote the concerto so as to ‘display the musical qualities of the various soloists in the wind and brass groups,’ and this is precisely what happened. With Emma Sholl on flute, Shefali Pryor on oboe, Francesco Celata on clarinet, Roger Brooke on bassoon, Robert Johnson on horn, David Elton on trumpet, Scott Kinmont on trombone, and Mark Robinson on timpani, Dutoit led the orchestra through an expertly paced three movements, evoking a edginess that was pleasant to the ear. The ensemble of concertists, too, worked extremely well together, especially in the occasional pairs.
After the interval was the mammoth, the gargantuan, the third symphony of Saint-Saens, his organ symphony. The pre-concert speaker spoke of George Bernard Shaw’s assessment of the work, where he liked the first three movements immensely, but felt the fourth ruined it all, and much of it should have been excised. Listening to it in the Concert Hall of the Sydney Opera House, with its famous theme (used in the movie Babe, for instance, as well as other places in popular culture) one can see where Shaw is coming from, what with its organ with all the stops out, and its many, many fortissimos. But there’s often an indulgent charm to symphonic climaxes, and so was the case with this rendition, organist David Drury piping in from the rafters. In the first three movements, however, Dutoit once again showed his mastery over tempo and generous invitations to each orchestral section. (The symphony is actually only in two movements, but there are, basically, two virtual movements in each, resulting in the usual symphonic shape.) A grand and intimate experience, and a controlled and powerful concert.
Rating: 4 ½ stars out of 5
Organ Symphony
Sydney Symphony
Charles Dutoit (conductor), Emma Sholl (flute), Shefali Pryor (oboe), Francesco Celata (clarinet), Roger Brooke (bassoon), Robert Johnson (horn), David Elton (trumpet), Scott Kinmont (trombone), Mark Robinson (timpani)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Symphony No.29 in A, K201
Frank Martin – Concerto for seven wind instruments, timpani, percussion and strings
Camille Saint-Saens – Symphony No.3 in C minor, Op.78 (Organ Symphony)
Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House
5 June
