The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra (ASO)’s Artist-in-Association for 2023 and 2024, Emily Sun, is always popular with the ASO audience. Her performance of Max Bruch’s wonderful Violin Concerto No.1 was the centrepiece of this Symphony Series 2 concert, headlined Horizons. Considered one of the highlights of the violin repertoire, the masterful First Concerto takes us on a deeply emotional journey from its soulful opening to its intensely energetic close. With Sun playing alongside guest conductor Shiyeon Sung, this was a vigorous and accomplished reading that still embodied the emotional core of the music.
Sun’s superb playing was rewarded with rapturous applause from the appreciative audience; they, in turn, were rewarded with a charming encore of Si Senor, a technically demanding and very entertaining violin party piece for the most skilled of players. And it’s always extra special to hear Sun playing the very precious 1753 Giovanni Battista Guadagnini “The Adelaide” violin, which is on loan to her from the UKARIA Cultural Trust.
This was the debut appearance with the ASO for Shiyeon Sung, a South Korean conductor acknowledged as a trailblazer within the revered world of conducting. She is the first female conductor from South Korea to take the podium with orchestras around the world. Indeed, this was very much a female-led and inspired concert with a female soloist, conductor, concertmaster and composer all featured.
The concert opened as usual with Pudnanthi Padninthi by Jack Buckskin and Jamie Goldsmith, which is the ASO’s preferred musical Acknowledgement of Country. I don’t usually include this in a review as it is played at every performance, but it’s worth a mention here because of its very particular tone and pace. This playing offered an illuminating illustration of the subtle differences in sound and performance that can be attributed to each conductor.
The Orchestra then took us on a seafaring adventure with Felix Mendelssohn’s Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage, a work inspired by poems of the same name by Germany’s great writer and polymath Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Even though there was an age gap of some 60 years between them, Goethe and the young Mendelssohn were friends and this was in part a tribute from one to the other. The piece shows all of Mendelssohn’s grace and elegance in composition. There was lovely work here from the strings and the brass section that together showed the changing moods of the sea.
After interval, the Orchestra played a modern work, the 1971 Fairytale Poem by Russian composer Sofia Gubaidulina. This is a delightful Czech tale about a child who rescues a piece of chalk from its tedious life in the classroom and sets it free to create wonderful drawings of castles and magical palaces. A colourful ensemble of instruments, including the harp and the piano, combine to create this magical soundscape.
And then it was another highlight of the night, Claude Debussy’s marvellous La Mer, an expressive work that creates wonderfully evocative seascapes. It’s clear to see why comparisons are often made between Debussy’s music and the Impressionist artists like Monet and Manet. The sea we hear in La Mer may be peaceful and enticing; it can also be stormy and menacing.
The brass and woodwinds and strings all worked together furiously, along with two harps and vibrant percussion. The names of each movement, From Dawn to Noon on the Sea, Play of the Waves and Dialogue of the Wind and the Sea, give an insight into Debussy’s crafting of the work.
Horizons was a delightful program and a wonderful opportunity to see Emily Sun and Shiyeon Sung together on stage.
Adelaide Symphony Orchestra with conductor Shiyeon Sung and solo violin Emily Sun.
Horizons played at the Adelaide Town Hall on 22-23 March 2024; it will be broadcast on ABC Classic Radio at 1pm on 21 April 2024.
