If it is possible to measure orchestral beauty and the engagement of an ensemble with their audience by a musical yardstick, violinist and artistic director Sophie Rowell is leading the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra over and above the top score. Light + Shade certainly brought a highly refined and mood-enhancing program to its audience.
How true to the program’s title was the opening Sinfonia in B minor. C. P. E. Bach’s three-movement work showed constant dynamic change, where themes alternated constantly between sensitive pianissimos and robust settings. With small strings standing in the performance, Rowell’s instrumental leadership produced ensemble rigour, admirable sweetness of pitch and transparency in lightness, with determined power and mood changes in Bach’s surprising dramatic and instant changes. This short work was packed with surprising technical contrasts and was a most enjoyable, and light, opener.
A rich Romantic tone enveloped the stage for the three slow movements of Stille Musik (Silent Music) for string orchestra, a slow and sensitive melodic work by Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov (b. 1937). The first violins prominent with quasi-recitative broad phrases, poignant and emotive, the opening Waltz of the Moment was most sorrowful as repeated descending octaves each fell from strength to diminishing softness. In Evening Song, sentimentality and sweetness continued with sad string phrases searching and repeating in a gentle light texture above staccato cello accompaniment. Moments of the Serenade repeated the introspective flow, texture and beauty of the strings emphasised rather than thematic development or mood change. Regarded as Ukraine’s finest living composer (now living in Berlin since 2022), but today being a first experience for the audience, it seemed that like many new works a second hearing would further the understanding of the work. While silence itself seemed less prominent or powerful, in a future hearing (and perhaps an added performance) of Silvestrov’s well-recognised work, 12 Silent Songs – so successful also for its quiet nostalgia and deeply moving expression – would add much understanding to Silvestrov’s small bodied but beautiful Stille Musik.
Felix Mendelssohn’s String Symphony No 12 in G minor brought a more empowered and energetic big sound from the MCO. Bold timbres and dynamic voice-leading entries from each string section was impressive in the opening contrapuntal Allegro. A contrasting Andante exuded ease and grace, thoughtfulness and balance in ensemble. Such a calming romantic pastorale. The third movement Allegro molto highlighted the leadership of violist Merewyn Bramble as Mendelssohn also focussed on the powerful shades of strong celli and double bass instruments. Animated, expressive, connected and balanced, this was an uplifting emotional work to lead us into interval.
Bassist Emma Sullivan introduced the second half with further thoughts on the MCO’s theme of Light & Shade. Varied shades and colours came in Brenda Gifford’s very short introductory work Bardju (Footprints), where Bramble’s free opening melodic line with unexpected bent notes and downward glissandos was vitalised with syncopated folk-dance rhythmic steps from percussion, low strings, and beat-box drum.
A close segue into Edward Elgar’s Serenade for Strings brought us to a favourite work with a visually elegant and beautiful presentation by MCO at its best. So warm and pleasing was the opening Allegro piacevole, followed by a lovely dream-like second movement Larghetto with uplifting rising crescendos, and a lithe, energetic and balletic, passionate Allegretto to close.
Always it is a great bonus to be able to welcome and hear from the Composer himself, with Nigel Westlake thanking the MCO for “bringing a bristling virtuosity” to his work, Psyche: Concerto for Trumpet and Chamber Orchestra. Westlake “unravelled the threads” and “re-invented the motor” for MCO from his original orchestral score, re-thinking how the solo trumpet (the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra’s Owen Morris) would be supported by a string orchestra, also condensing brass and winds into the piano part (Louisa Breen) and five percussionists into one (Brent Miller.)
In outer space we have a never-ending universe of light and shade. Inspired by NASA’s exploration of asteroid belts, specifically the rare metal asteroid, 16 Psyche, which lies between Mars and Jupiter, Westlake’s imaginary fantasy concerto in four movements has the best of Light and Shade and more. Opening with Morris’s solo trumpet off-stage and distant, a gentle free timeless line began Goddess of the Soul, rising and falling slowly across wide intervals over soft sustained strings. Launch became more agitated with a rhythmic accompaniment from high piano shiny notes, woodblocks and percussion adding sparks, glissandos and colourful crispy Stravinsky-like accented repetitions. In reality, we know little about gravity. Westlake’s orchestration in Mars Gravity Assist gave us a dense, low chordal texture, with broad trumpet tonal themes, sharing the pathway and movement through space in conversational lines with cello. A focus on rising arpeggios added to a luminescent, circulating sonic atmosphere, with glistening glockenspiel starry clusters passing by. With muted trumpet effects and incisive xylophone colour, Arrival also added the most lively syncopated and staccato accents, a joyful dance feel and virtuosic triple tonguing for the soloist. There was great excitement in picturesque descending patterns and downward glissandos, truly capturing a surprise landing.
This splendid and uplifting, very substantial and innovative program, with first class string section leaders, has certainly put MCO right above the top of the class.
Photo credit: Lucien Fischer
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Julie McErlain reviewed “Light + Shade”, presented by Melbourne Chamber Orchestra at the Melbourne Recital Centre, Elisabeth Murdoch Hall, on April 18, 2024.
