★★★★☆ Robertson and co. give Stravinsky’s subtle and delicate score an appropriate treatment.

Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House
August 10, 2016

This was the second in the SSO’s concert series built around the three early ballet scores of Igor Stravinsky. It featured the earliest of these masterpieces, The Firebird, written in 1910. “Stravinsky at his most opulent” was the blurb. His most opulent? Arguably The Firebird represents the only piece of Stravinsky’s music that could be described as opulent (apart from a couple of minor, immature works). Firebird was the ultimate product of the composer’s lessons in orchestration under Rimsky-Korsakov; appropriately, since the ballet’s scenario dwells in the same fantastic fairy-tale world as Rimsky-Korsakov’s operas. An occasional moment such as the Infernal Dance of Kashchei’s Followers brings a hint of The Rite to come, but this is basically a subtle and delicate score, and Robertson and the SSO treated it as such.

The orchestra shimmered. Every colourful effect registered within the well-balanced textures, while rhythms – as ever with Robertson­­ – were taut. Woodwind solos were beautifully shaped, especially the clarinet and the important bassoon parts. I failed to fall under the spell of the mysterious opening, not because it wasn’t well done but because an idiot sitting down from me fiddled noisily with a leather coat and a newspaper right through it. Why do some people at orchestral concerts seem not to have their wits about them?

The complete score of The Firebird has its tricky moments. Some bridge passages are designed to depict specific stage business and don’t really hang together as pure music. In the First Act I felt the musicians needed to characterise these episodes more; mere beauty of tone is not enough. The performance was excellent overall, however, building up all the necessary excitement and volume at the close without sacrificing polish. Imagine what this orchestra would sound like in a hall where the acoustic actually flattered it!            

Karol Szymanowski’s Violin Concerto No 1 (1916) comes from the period when the fastidious Pole fell under the influence of French composers, particularly Debussy. The opening is as translucent as anything in Pelléas et Mélisande, but when the soloist enters in alt, the sinuously exotic voice of this remarkable composer is fully revealed. Violinist Christian Tetzlaff once recorded the concerto with Boulez (a disc which is no longer available, we discovered at the obligatory signing). His authority is unquestionable. The challenging solo line wanders between precipitous high harmonics and aggressive rhythmic double-stopping: both require a rock-solid technique, to which Tetzlaff added interpretative panache and what we used to call temperament. He was particularly impressive in the solo cadenza.     

The opening item on the programme was Peter Sculthorpe’s Sun Music I. It is good that we continue to hear Sculthorpe’s music played two years after his death. This is often the time when a contemporary composer’s music begins to disappear from concert programmes, but it would be truly unfortunate in Sculthorpe’s case. The man may have left us but the Australia he so vividly depicted remains unchanged. The first of his Sun Music series, dating from 1965, is an austere but gripping example of antipodean impressionism. Soft string clusters, accompanied by cymbal rolls, create an almost tangible picture of heat rising from a desert landscape. Sculthorpe’s distinctive brass voicings also permeate this short work. Under Robertson’s assured direction the SSO relished the dry, stark colours and made the most of dynamic contrasts. Altogether, this was an imaginative and highly satisfying programme.

The Sydney Symphony Orchestra performs this programme again on August 12 and 13

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