A beauty and two beasts: Music review by Fraser Beath McEwing

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Under the baton of Simone Young, the SSO turned in a stirring performance last night from the two big Bs: Brahms’ first symphony and Beethoven’s violin concerto with soloist James Ehnes.

James Ehnes

But first came the latest rung in the wondrously growing ladder of contemporary Australian composers.

Unlike many of the works of little-known local composers in the 50 Fanfares series, I did have expectations for the piece that opened the program, Release by Ella Macens.  I’d been enchanted by an earlier symphonic work of hers, The Space Between Stars. It can be heard on YouTube.

Macens is a young Sydney-based composer with a Latvian background and influence, whose work has been performed by many orchestras and other music groupings in Australia. She’s another outstanding graduate and competition winner from the fertile Sydney Conservatorium and is currently completing a master of music (composition) degree.

Release lasted eight minutes, and while I loved what I heard, I got the impression that it should have been part of a much longer work: a suite or even a symphony. It began just this side of silence and then ebbed and flowed through gentle, evocative writing that never offended the ear. And that’s unusual for a contemporary composer where confrontation is the accepted norm. Bravo Ella! More, please.

Like many leading composers, Beethoven wrote only one concerto for violin and orchestra. Some musicologists see it as the pinnacle of the genre, with its symphonic sweep and demands that push soloists to the limit. In this case James Ehnes brought his 1715 Strad along to show how it should be done. At 47, the Canadian-born, affable Ehnes is at the height of his powers – both technically and interpretively, but still espouses a driving work ethic to do better. And oddly, he bills himself as a violinist and violist. In the classical music world, where violists are sometimes ridiculed because their instruments are neither fish nor fowl, he revels in playing pieces that have been specifically written for the viola.

Simone Young

But last night, the violin and Beethoven were front and centre, with a soloist who is regarded as among the world’s best. And while that came across in this performance, I had trouble in hearing many of his delicate pianissimo passages. That, of course, could be the fault of my aging ears, although when I compared volumes with the occasional solo passage from the SSO concertmaster, Andrew Haveron won the cigar.

Voluminous questions aside, this was a stellar performance. The two cadenzas were up there in Formula One, blazing with excitement and passion. And Simon Young’s conducting can take some of the credit, too, as she hushed the orchestra to give the soloist sound room.

Simone Young usually conducts with a baton, but for the Beethoven, she used only her expressive hands. She may have feared her baton adding an extra f-hole to Ehnes’s Strad, remembering, perhaps, how Ashkenazy once knocked Sophie Mutter’s Strad flying when she wandered into his waving zone during an SSO rehearsal.

Presented as the highlight work, Brahms Symphony No.1 in C minor Op.68 filled the second half of the program. While it took only about 50 minutes for the SSO to play, Johannes spent 21 years writing and adjusting it – with its premier in 1876. Brahms was his own toughest critic and felt the weight of writing successors to Beethoven’s symphonies. Yet when the tormented notes of the strings underpinned by the incessant timpani beat open the first movement, you immediately know he succeeded.

Fraser Beath McEwing

Again, under Simone Young (baton back in service), Brahms Symphony No.1 in C minor, Op 68 sounded better as it progressed. I was a little disappointed at the opening strings and timpani passage. I wanted less aggressive timpani blows and, as Ashkenazy sometimes told his SSO players, ‘more heart’ from the strings. That also applied to the theme of the fourth movement, which came across as a little too business-like. But the wind-up to a cataclysmic finish was spectacular, with the final staccato hammer chords razor sharp. It stirred the souls of the audience who gave the performance a resounding reception.

And speaking of last night’s audience, the applause between movements grated on me. It broke the narrative and cheapened the performance. Maybe one day, I’ll have the courage to stand up in my seat and tell them to stop. Maybe . . .

Fraser Beath McEwing is a pianist, commentator on classical music performance and a founding member of The theme & Variations Foundation which assists talented young Australian pianists. His professional background is in journalism, editing and publishing. He is also the author of five novels and a Governor of the Sir Moses Montefiore Home. A body of his work can be found on www.frasersblography.com