SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Dvořák, Smetana, Janáček: Sydney Symphony, Sir Charles Mackerras (conductor), Sydney Opera House Concert Hall, Sydney, 12.10.2007 (TP)

Dvořák: Symphony No.7 in D Minor Op.70

Smetana: Vltava from Ma Vlast

Janáček: Sinfonietta

Sir Charles Mackerras has an unique relationship with the Sydney Symphony.  He played with the orchestra during the second world war when he was too young to be called up for military service and  was the orchestra's principal oboe when, enlarged to an 82 player band, it took the name of the “Sydney Symphony Orchestra” in 1946.  He left these shores to make his career abroad, but returned to take up the baton as the orchestra's chief conductor from 1982 to 1985, the first Australian to do so.  While Americans make much of his having been born in the United States, and while the British consider him an elder statesman of their musical establishment, for us he remains Australia's greatest conductor.  Of all the guests to appear with the Sydney Symphony in this, its 75^th anniversary year, none is more welcome than Sir Charles Mackerras.

Of course, there is another nation with a substantial claim on Sir Charles Mackerras.  In his enormous repertoire, the music of the Czech composers has always held pride of place.  On Friday 12 October, before a packed house, Sir Charles demonstrated once again why he has long been regarded as the foremost interpreter of Czech music outside the Czech Republic itself.

In his hands, the old chestnut of Smetana's Vltava danced and shimmered.  Swift undercurrents swirled beneath the sun-kissed surface of the water, slipping past a wedding party of unexpected polish – no rude rustics here.  In the closing bars, before the curt final chords, Sir Charles teased his listeners' ears with lingering phrases from the strings.  His ability to shape a phrase, to draw out tempi or press ahead naturally is uncanny.  Many a conductor trying to mimic him would sound willful or gauche, but Sir Charles' gestures and rubato always feel so natural, so right, and make perfect musical sense.

His knack for ebb and flow was very much in evidence in the superb performance of Dvořák's 7^th which opened the concert.  The first movement's first bars were portentous, setting the stage for a reading of weight and drama.  While there was darkness in the first subject of the first movement, the gorgeous second subject broke through it like sunshine through cloud.  The nostalgic second movement did not linger, yet retained its wistfulness, like a returning traveler walking through a remembered landscape rather than brooding over it.  Wry, teasing humour and powerful climaxes characterised the flowing third movement and the finale crackled with excitement from its mysterious opening bars to its electrifying conclusion.  Sir Charles turned every corner with ease and guided the orchestra through each transition in a performance that will live in the memory.

It was surpassed in excellence, though, by Sir Charles' perfectly sculpted reading of Janačék's Sinfonietta.  From the finely blended martial fanfares at its opening and close – their warmth enhanced by two euphoniums – to the tension and exoticism of the second movement; from the unusually lush string harmonies of the third movement to the gripping drama of its wild central section, this was music making at its most magical.

Tim Perry

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