Graham Abbott was very proud of the assembly of musicians before him on a simply “chock-a-block” stage in Hamer Hall. Bringing young Melbourne Youth Orchestra musicians to perform side-by-side with Melbourne Symphony Orchestra members is surely the best educational experience for our future professionals, and the opportunity to be mentored and encouraged by MSO principals is rewarding and exciting for everyone. It was delightful to see over forty young musicians represented in every section of the orchestra, with harp, piano, bass trombone and cor anglais also featuring. Having such expanded string and percussion sections must have influenced this excellent choice of program, as very beautiful and colourful 20th Century repertoire gave every instrument a chance for featured solo work, just what family and friends would be pleased with too.
A young Poulenc first composed an eight-movement ballet suite with vocal parts for the Ballets Russes in 1924: Les Biches, (literally meaning The Female Deer), but later revised his original orchestration, creating a five-movement concert work. Recognised as being neo-classical, the French influences made this a delightful tonal and harmonic piece, theatrical in colour and flair, contrasting sections and instrumental statements full of character and personality. The very first note of the piece was a surprise and a challenge – just a single accented note was required, played pizzicato in the strings – a difficult test for ensemble accuracy with twenty new ensemble members on a grand stage. Frequently the opening Rondeau – Allegro, is given much vigour and an almost theatrical emphasis on accented rhythms and capricious dance elements, but tonight the colourful instrumentation was forefront, so a modest tempo allowed strings to be unified in mellow, calm contrasting sections while brass, woodwind and percussion fanfares were smooth and clean. Brass and percussion entries particularly developed more confidence, presence and style as they warmed into their solos in the exotic and almost mystic tones of a sensual Adagietto second movement. There was an abundance of pleasantry and warm spirit produced as strings rallied as one with an assertive and blended timbre. As the theme of the original ballet portrayed characters at a social party, there was much interplay of excellent woodwind and brass solo personalities, generally confident percussion, and an uplifting and youthful spirit in the music.
Reluctantly, I must remark on the strange admittance of a dozen latecomers into the audience while this beautiful music was playing. Although there were empty seats at the rear of the stalls where anxious latecomers could have entered and sat quietly, it was quite bizarre that so many people filed down both aisles, looking for their seats in the front few rows, and disrespectfully moving across patrons to find central front seating while the music played on. Sadly, another respectful concert tradition may have hit the dust.
Abbott spoke proudly of this wonderful MSO mentoring project, before hailing the piece he considers to be one of the most important in Australian musical history: Sculthorpe’s Sun Music III. Commissioned in 1967 by the ABC to mark the occasion of the 20th anniversary of Youth Concerts in Australia, Sculthorpe’s piece was seen as quite radical in its day, showing his fascination with the music of Indonesia and the tonal elements and colours of the Balinese Gamelan orchestra in particular.
With such an abundance of strings giving us an opening of intense shimmering sounds, we swooned in the heat of the sun. We could feel a meditative aura and calm spirit as gongs and short pentatonic melodies floated in a world of gentle glissandos and bird-like sounds. Very effective were high glissandos on trombone and cello strings, with wooden percussion and drums adding dryness to this imaginative and illustrative orchestration.
In a surprise move, Abbott stepped from his conducting role to walk through the musicians to speak directly to oboist Anika Webigen, asking her to describe her new fascination and study of the cor anglais, and timpanist Felix Gilmour, who was proud to describe his love for jazz drumming and the breadth of training given to all members of a percussion section. This was a nice personal touch to the occasion.
Returning to our program of very beautiful and colourful orchestrations, a gentle and dreamy piece gave us further images of French Impressionism. In his Prélude d’un Ballet (1910), composer Jean Roger-Ducasse shows transparent, dreamy and softly coloured textures, clearly suggesting the influence of his teacher Fauré, and his associations with Debussy and Ravel. Just three minutes long, this short delight could have been played twice for our pleasure!
Respighi’s two famous symphonic tone poems, The Fountains of Rome and The Pines of Rome have been enduring and popular works, revealing what the composer desired, namely, “to reproduce by means of tone an impression of nature”. The choice of The Pines of Rome was a perfect musical sequence to a highly expressive and colourful orchestral program. Very sensitively conducted, Abbott inspired and achieved impressive teamwork with smooth dynamic undulations and a fine expression of the visions suggested by the composer. We felt the spirit of the children playing at the Villa Borghese, we felt the shadows and ancient low chants at the Catacombs, we heard the (pre-recorded) nightingale at Janiculum Hill, and felt the grandeur of the rhythms of marching steps and a triumphant rising sun on the Appian Way.
Congratulations Graeme Abbott, MSO and MYO members for this rewarding initiative.
Photo courtesy Melbourne Youth Orchestra.
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Julie McErlain reviewed Melbourne Symphony Orchestra’s “Pines of Rome”, featuring Melbourne Youth Orchestra – Side by Side, performed at Arts Centre Melbourne, Hamer Hall on May 21, 2022.
