★★★★☆ Tate and Gillham make a memorable evening for an orchestra celebrating 80 years of music making.

Festival Theatre, Adelaide
October 29, 2016

An atmosphere of anticipation was palpable as guests clad in tuxedos and cocktail dresses filled the Festival Theatre straight from the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra’s 80th birthday dinner party celebrations. As the lights dimmed, Jeffrey Tate graced the stage, walking stick in hand, to sit aloft his stool upon the podium. The unassuming dignity and fragility with which the illustrious maestro walks on and off stage belies the quiet authority he commands over the orchestra, and the conviction and energy he brings to each of his thoroughly convincing readings. Known among Adelaide audiences for his acclaimed production of Wagner’s the Ring Cycle in 1998, Tate is no stranger to works of colossal proportions, and to see him work his magic with the ASO here again in Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben was never less than inspiring.

The opening Prelude from Act I of Wagner’s The Mastersingers of Nuremberg was a little lacklustre and underwhelming, but it was all up from there as one of Australia’s most promising young pianists came on stage to perform Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto. At 30 years...