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Branford Marsalis/ASO/Andrey Boreyko Malaysian Airlines Master Series Adelaide Town Hall - Thu 28 July Michael Kieran Harvey Steinway Piano Inaugural Recital Festival Theatre - Mon 1 August There is little doubt that the Adelaide Symphony is playing their butts off at the moment. If one cares to think back a decade or so, there was a time when the horns could be expected to crack, but presently the orchestra is playing as well as its interstate cousins and this colourful programme fully attests to their current level of excellence. In the past couple of years the ASO have given very fine performances of Stravinsky's ballets 'Agon' and 'Petrouchka' as well as the formidably rhythmic 'Symphony In 3 Movements'. Their persuasive way with Stravinsky is further consolidated with excellent performances of the popular 'Firebird' suite and the somewhat rarer Tchaikovsky-based divertimento from 'Le Baiser De La Fee'. Both of these works demand highly virtuosic playing from both the winds and brass sections, and both met these considerable demands effortlessly. Celebrated jazz saxophonist Branford Marsalis brought a different audience to Town Hall; they were mainly jazz devotees who no doubt would have found Glazunov's 'Saxophone Concerto' a bit conservative and too classical, but Marsalis made the most of the neo-Bachian counterpoint in the final movement. Marsalis' tone in this was mellifluous but I gather that it was the Copland 'Clarinet Concerto', played here for the first time on sax, which really brought in the crowds. Of course twentieth-century French composers like Debussy, Ibert and Milhaud have probably done more to raise the position of the saxophone as a classical instrument and perhaps Marsalis would have been better in essaying, say, Milhaud's 'La Creation Du Monde' where the instrument's particular sonorities are used to spellbinding effect. The Copland is an enchanting piece full of jazz and klezmer references and Marsalis was able to project his instrument over the orchestra perhaps better than most clarinetists can. However, in the second movement that he ran into expected difficulties in its runs of spiraling glissandi. The larger reed and mouthpiece favoured by Marsalis was the root of the problem and of course it's much more difficult to bend the notes here than in the way in which it is possible to on a wooden clarinet. Even so, it was a nice try and generally worked well. On a slightly more intimate note, through an ingenious means of fundraising (donations were made for each key), the Adelaide Festival Centre has just taken possession of a brand new $250,000 Steinway grand piano and it was left to the hands of virtuoso Michael Kieran Harvey to break it in, as it were, in a highly flashy recital of Beethoven, Liszt, Gershwin, Westlake and Stravinsky. Winner of the prestigious Ivo Pogorelich competition, Harvey chose a programme that was extroverted and flashy and as such, his take on Ludwig van's 'Appassionata' was played at a relentless speed and with great virtuosity rather than seeking romantic introversion. Liszt's exciting first 'Mephisto Waltz' thrilled the audience; however, in the second and third of George Gershwin's Preludes, Harvey went for thrill and improvisation rather than precision. Written especially with Harvey's incredible technique in mind, Nigel Westlake's recent 'Piano Sonata No.2' was interpreted with great skill and panache. Stravinsky's highly virtuosic transcriptions from 'Petrouchka' (originally written for Rubenstein) finished proceedings; a performance which generally made the most of colour and fiery rhythms, although the left hand sound tangled at times. This generous and complex recital was given without an interval, which attests to the formidable gifts of the pianist. And the piano? It sounded wonderful in the hands of a true virtuoso. He certainly gave it a workout! There is little doubt that Harvey is perhaps the finest Australian virtuoso pianist of his generation (he is without parallel in the Bartok concertos) and is a worthy successor to the likes of Woodward and Madge. He is coming back to tackle Beethoven's formidable 'Hammerklavier' during Feast. Don't miss it!  |
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