★★★★½ Dejan Lazić presents Ravel in remarkable performance with TSO.

Federation Concert Hall, Hobart
March 5, 2016

Hobart audiences young and old experienced true forbidden romance on Saturday night when the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra performed Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet. Prokofiev also tackled this Shakespearean tragedy in his equally matched creation, but this version excelled under the baton of Marko Letonja and with promising new concertmaster Emma McGrath.

The woodwinds’ first sombre notes created a sense of edginess, followed by an impeccable tightness from the strings. Of the two familiar and distinguished themes in the work, the first was busy and fiery, but performed without impatience, Letonja ensuring the appropriate structural build. The second theme, also known to most in the concert hall I’m sure, exuded a seemingly impossible sense of longing that can only be known in great works of love. A memorable performance to welcome guest pianist Dejan Lazić onto the platform for the next work.

Amsterdam-based Lazić played Ravel’s jazz-inspired Piano Concerto in G in the first of two concerts with the orchestra (Lazić will perform Brahms’ Piano Concerto No 1 in a follow-up this Friday night). Taking his seat at the piano, he appeared so hunched over the keyboard that his...