This Perth matinee performance came ahead of WASO’s regional tour of the same program, with the addition of WA composer Lachlan Skipworth’s Flute Concerto, to Mandurah and Albany. I love Skipworth’s music. But I didn’t miss it on this occasion, as the tight hour-long program suited the 575-seat theatre. As did WASO Principal Conductor Asher Fisch’s lean, tight accounts of the Act III Intermezzo from Puccini’s Manon Lescaut and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64.

That said, one had the impression Fisch was always trying to break the music out of its intimate confines and into the world beyond, where passion, conflict and triumph reign. This inherent tension – between respecting the theatre’s inherent qualities on the one hand and the music’s on the other – gave this concert a power not always matched in larger venues.

WASO performs Tchaikovsky Fifth Symphony. Photo © Simin Soyer

Puccini’s Intermezzo proved emblematic of that tension, both concentrating and developing as it does the expansive Act II love duet between Manon and Des Grieux. Fisch seized on the chromaticism and instability of the opening, urging the low strings on towards their union with the upper woodwinds carrying the love theme. Harp and pizzicato strings, horn and bassoon added their voices ahead of an exquisitely shaped climactic fortissimo which Fisch and WASO dissolved into the triple-p coda with delicious sensitivity. Thus was the stage set for the Tchaikovsky.

Before the performance, Fisch discussed Tchaikovsky’s struggles with his homosexuality, which are in part played out here. In particular, he mentioned Tchaikovsky’s famous note regarding the Symphony No. 5’s first movement: “Murmurs, doubts, laments, reproaches against XXX.” So again, we have an intimate starting point, with this cyclical symphony’s central ‘fate’ motto in the clarinets, before transformation and illumination across all four movements into a triumphant realm of new possibilities.

WASO performs Tchaikovsky Fifth Symphony. Photo © Simin Soyer

Fisch and WASO navigated the stormy, agitated atmosphere of the first movement with precision and aplomb while keeping their powder dry for the hurdles to come. David Evans’ lyrical horn solo in the second movement andante provided the most perfect of models for the winds and strings – a quality Fisch carried across into the third movement’s waltz while adroitly shading the palette with dabs of darkness in the trio section.

The Finale was everything you wanted it to be: triumphant, martial even, exploding off the stage and into the hearts of everyone present like a victory ode from beyond the grave.

For information on upcoming West Australian Symphony Orchestra concerts visit waso.com.au