“The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra probably travelled further than most to attend this year’s Festival, but there’s no evidence that they scaled down to do so”, writes Lindsay McMurdo, who we sent along to review.
The band crammed the Usher Hall stage and features a daunting array of every conceivable percussion instrument along the backline. The six percussion players played a prominent role in the highly enjoyable, if slightly uneven, performance that follows.
Under the direction of genial and energetic chief conductor Jaime Martin, they kicked off with Elgar’s seldom-performed In the South, a kind of extended tone poem nominally inspired by sunlit ruins and ancient landscapes.
In truth, it’s a thinly-veiled excuse for Elgar to run through every familiar trope in his repertoire – the lush string-led melodies, some Nimrod-like booming brass and those Wagner-like suspensions to be found in all his works. It’s a pure pleasure to hear and is beautifully played throughout.
The emotional centre of the concert was the world premiere of Treaty by Australian First Nation composer Deborah Cheetham Fraillon, written for orchestra and yidaki (didgeridoo), performed by William Barton. The piece is intended to reflect the contemporary urgency of the treaty proposed by the Australian government with indigenous Australians (ultimately voted down) and to convey the pride and resilience of the world’s oldest living culture.
“The band crammed the Usher Hall stage and features a daunting array of every conceivable percussion instrument along the backline.“
It began promisingly with an explosive extended passage of percussion, underpinned by the yidaki’s ululating voice and distinctive “wind machine” echo.
This was highly exciting and aurally arresting stuff. Sadly, it was not to last when the full orchestra came in, largely drowning out the yidaki, with a very ordinary score that sounded to this reviewer like a below-par John Williams film score, entirely Western in its harmonies and cadences. The yidaki all but disappeared into the morass, as did a short passage of singing by Barton. The piece somewhat fizzled out without a return to the high energy of the opening. All in all, a frustrating listen.
More involving by far was the encore, where the orchestra set up a kind of quiet drone-like sound over which Barton sang a traditional First Nation song with occasional passages on the yidaki, clearly audible this time. A programme of such similar pieces might have provided better insight into the instrument and the musical culture in which it sits.
After the first half combined musical rarity and challenging new composition, the second half was given over to that much-loved concert stalwart and guaranteed audience-pleaser, Maurice Ravel’s orchestration of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition.
This is not a piece that asks for or needs any kind of radical rethink or fresh interpretation. It just needs a great band (which the Melbourne certainly is), going all-out to deliver the score with verve and commitment. And that’s exactly what we got, to general delight.
Featured Image: Melbourne Symphony Orchestra – Image by Tommy Ga-Ken Wan
Show Details
Venue: Venue c3-62436: Usher Hall, Lothian Road Edinburgh EH1 2EA, EH1 2EA (Google Maps)
Date(s): Fri 22 Aug
Time(s): 7:30pm (100 mins)
Price: From £22
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