MCO Season Opener lays the foundation for success
One season has already passed for the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra under the direction of new leader Sophie Rowell. A 2023 filled with many interesting programs and exciting moments in performance showed the promise of this proud local ensemble.
The band’s 2024 season opened this past week with yet more promise and potential. A program of Mozart, Dvořák, Stanhope and Katy Abbott showed the group’s diversity and ability to blend and play with fabulous cohesion.
The concert opened with a world premiere from Melbourne’s Abbott. Composed to mark the 80th birthday of Rowell’s mother, the composer describes Glacial Thunder as “aiming to pick up on the nuances of resonance in regards to communication; through playful gestures and ensemble ‘stillness’”. Abbott’s piece was arresting and explored a wide array of string techniques across a broad range of colours. Skillful string writing held attention in a work that will undoubtedly be heard again.
The main course in the first half was arguably Mozart’s finest concerto work, the Sinfonia Concertante, featuring violin and viola. Rowell was joined by the irrepressible Christopher Moore (well known as principal viola of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and previously the Australian Chamber Orchestra, and who also arranged the work for strings only). This was a performance that emphasised beauty of line and refined ensemble playing with gorgeous and charming solos from both players. Rowell and Moore communicated with élan and a healthy dose of humour, and revelled in the significant challenges of the cadenza moments. This was a hugely entertaining reading of this spectacular masterpiece.
The second half began with a haunting adaptation for strings of an indigenous song of the late Bunuba woman Molly Jalakbiya. Her song Dirrai tells the tale of a mother black cockatoo mourning the loss of her offspring. Sydney-based composer Paul Stanhope collaborated with the custodians of this song to turn it initially into a large scale work for the Sydney Symphony orchestra before transforming it into this chamber version for strings at the MCO’s request. It may be fair to say this atmospheric and very moving music was the highlight of the concert.
The finale was from the most standard of core repertoire shelves: the inventive and melodically abundant Serenade for Strings of Antonin Dvořák. There are vast emotional moods across the five movements of this work, and here again the MCO displayed its impressive sense of refinement and blend.
Those performances that really live in the memory combine these traits with the magic that comes from a spark of risk and the element of danger. The MCO is displaying world-class ensemble playing and sophisticated beauty of sound. A little more living on the edge and experimentation is all that remains for truly unmissable music making.
Photo credit: Lucien Fischer
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Stewart Kelly reviewed “Music Speaks”, performed by the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra at the Melbourne Recital Centre’s Elizabeth Murdoch Hall on Sunday March 3, 2024.
