Sydney Opera House, Concert Hall
November 24, 2017

It’s oratorio season. Between the countless Messiahs springing up around the country and the Australian Chamber Orchestra touring Bach’s Christmas Oratorio in December, there’s no shortage of fodder for choral aficionados. But David Robertson’s Belshazzar’s Feast programme with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, which paired William Walton’s oratorio based on the story of the writing on the wall from the biblical Book of Daniel with Hungarian composer Péter Eötvös’ new Halleluja – Oratorium Balbulum, was something else entirely.

Commissioned by the Salzburg Festival – where it premiered – and a string of other collaborators, including the SSO, Eötvös’ “Stuttering Oratorio” eschews spiritual conviction or biblical inspiration for a more questioning tone, the four movements of the work asking Who are we?, Where are we?, What do we want? and What do we keep silent about? With a playful, self-aware German libretto by the late Hungarian writer Péter Esterházy, this is an oratorio for our uncertain times.

Michelle DeYoung, Martin Crewes, David Robertson and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Photo © Ken Butti

Glittering fragmentary sound opened the work, smooth slashes of strings and brass sweeping crescendos...