Wigglesworth lifts the bar in program which proves an orchestral workout.

Adelaide Town Hall
November 21, 2014

It wasn’t all that long ago that Mahler would prove to be beyond the ken of the local orchestra. Such repertoire would generally be the fare of visiting orchestras and festivals. However with Arvo Volmer’s excellently received cycle of all nine completed Mahler symphonies, not to mention the two Wagnerian Ring cycles since 2000, the Adelaide orchestra’s ability to comprehend and master these late Romantic masterpieces would bear fruit. And if anything, this performance of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony surpasses even Volmer. 

This particular programme would prove to be a generous one (as most orchestras would be satisfied in presenting the Mahler alone), with the addition of Franz Liszt’s highly virtuosic Second Piano Concerto with soloist Jean-Efflam Bazouvet, here was something more akin to the generous evening entertainment that we would associate with Liszt himself – placing him, as film director Ken Russell would do, as classical music’s first cross-over rock star where personality also becomes important. And of course in this music, and so appropriately, the pianist played directly to the sold-out audience with gargantuan musical forces supporting him...