Beethoven and Turnage: Richard Tognetti (violin), Australian Chamber Orchestra, Sydney Opera House Concert Hall, Sydney, 18.02.2007 (TP)

 

Beethoven, Violin Concerto

Turnage, Lullaby for Hans

Beethoven, Symphony No.3 'Eroica'

 

You would have been forgiven for thinking that the crowd of eager listeners that swarmed into the Opera House on Sunday afternoon were there to hear Beethoven.  Or perhaps that they were loyal fans of Richard Tognetti, or of the Australian Chamber Orchestra.  The majority of the crowd were probably there for all of those reasons.  But the collective intake of breath before the solo violin's first entry in the Beethoven concerto revealed in an instant the real star of the show.  After weeks of publicity, the crowd at Opera House wanted to hear Tognetti's new violin.

In his hands was the Carrodus, a 1743 del Gesu violin, bought recently at auction for a princely A$10 million by an anonymous benefactor, and loaned indefinitely to the ACO's leader.  We all wanted to hear it, but Beethoven kept us waiting.

Brian Nixon's crisp timpani strokes opened the first movement of the concerto with a gentle call to attention, quickly taken up by well-blended winds.  The warm tone lavished by the strings on the first theme of the expostion contrasted sharply with the bite of the second theme's sudden fortissimo.  Tognetti, in a lounge suit and a sensible tie, directed proceedings with fairly free gestures, but precise intent.  Then suddenly it was time to put bow to string, to give the Carrodus voice.  It was a sweet voice, with a full rounded tone, even in the higher registers and even at the softest of dynamics.  Tognetti gave the violin a thorough work out, emphasising dynamic contrast and playing his pianissimo passages as if using the bow to wave air past the strings.  The larghetto was lovely, exuding a Mozartian sense of relaxation.  Tognetti, worried slightly by minor tuning problems during the cadenza of the first movement, was bolder in Kreisler's cadenza for this second movement, and played it with sweetly centred tone.  The final movement was proud, with a hint of swagger, the orchestra again supporting its leader admirably.

This was not the most classically poised rendition of Beethoven's concerto, but it was a performance of drama and character.

 

After interval, Tognetti returned to the stage attired, like the rest of the orchestra, in his Akira Isogawa blacks, to the lead the ACO strings in Turnage's Lullaby for Hans.  Initially conceived as a piano miniature, Turnage developed the piece into a vignette for string orchestra in honour of German composer Hans Werner Henze's 80^th birthday.  It received its world premiere in June last year, and received its Australian premiere in the ACO's first concert in this series, held in Newcastle on 8th February.  Breathing itself quietly into existence, the Lullaby was woven around bitter-sweet, tonally ambiguous harmony.  Fragments of melody surfaced and were submerged, with dreamy statements coming from the cellos.  Unrest began to grow, and after a disjointed dialogue between principal cello and solo violin, the violin's consolation restored an uneasy peace and the Lullaby faded away to nothingness mid-phrase on Tognetti's bow.

 

I enjoyed the concert up to this point, but the ACO had saved the best 'til last.  For a few years now, the ACO has been including a Beethoven symphony in its annual subscription season.  This year, it was the Eroica.  The sharp shock of the opening chords signalled a first movement of pace and precision. This was young, vigorous Beethoven, angered but undefeated by his increasing deafness, lashing out with anguished dissonances, searching for answers and returning once again to his defiant heroic theme.  The funeral march had a determined forward momentum, with superb control of dynamics heightening the drama of the movement.  The chattering jolity of the scherzo was invigorating, and the horns clearly enjoyed their hunting calls in the trio.  With hardly a break between the final note of the third movement and the first of the fourth, the strings hurtled down a dizzying fortissimo passage and suddenly shrank back to piano pizzacato.  And then, disaster.  In the quiet, to universal dismay, the warning bells of the Opera Theatre next door were clearly audible, summoning patrons back after their interval.  Tognetti stopped the orchestra and explained apologetically that the performance was being recorded.  Just as well it was not being broadcast live!

 

The bells stopped and with a sharp, unified attack the finale was away again: venemous in fortissimo, tender in piano, building inexorably to a blazing finish.  Throughout, the balancing of parts was superb, with the small company of strings never overwhelming the woodwinds, but holding their own against the brass. 

 

This programme is to be repeated at the City Recital Hall, Angel Place in Sydney on Tuesday, 20 February and Wednesday, 21 February.  Go to hear Tognetti's Carrodus in the concerto, but it is the Eroica that will stay with you.

 

 

Tim Perry