Renegades? Really? No, forget the implausible title and see this instead as a double CD set that encapsulates some of the qualities of the Australian Chamber Orchestra and its collaborative artists across a broad spectrum of music. Recorded over four evenings in Sydney in 2002 – at the City Recital Hall and at the Opera House – the concerts were filmed and are now available on DVD. Adventurous and diverse the disc is rather more conspectus than cogent programme – it includes isolated movements from concertos and symphonies – so a broad brush is called for and not the microscope.

The disc gets off to a rather sticky start with an over-sophisticated performance of The Lark Ascending – no match for the rapt simplicity of Isolde Menges, Jean Pougnet or Hugh Bean – but they do well by the surge and nostalgia of Piazzolla. The Overture from The Creatures of Prometheus sounds a mite underpowered but the Haydn pleases. Baritone Teddy Tahu Rhodes is accomplished in Sibelius and Grieg but the highlight of the first disc is Elena Kats-Chernin’s Torque. Performed hot off the compositional press and inspired by thoughts automotive, hence the title, this is a galvanizing brew, part Piazzolla, part John Adams. It soars, drives and relaxes – grist to the ACO’s mill. The second CD is given over to a performance of the Schubert Quintet given by a contingent of the orchestra led by their artistic director Richard Tognetti. Only a few coughs give away the liveness of the performance – that and the intense concentration of breathing and musical direction.

Jonathan Woolf

 

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