Melbourne Symphony Orchestra concert 20 May 2009 - Victory!

Featuring:
- Debussy Printemps, orchestrated by Henri Busser
- Elgar Cello Concerto
- Prokofiev Symphony No. 5

Matthew Barley - Cello
Yan Pascal Tortelier - Conductor

Despite my rant against the change in programming, I really enjoyed this performance. Debussy's colourful Printemps with the beautiful main theme first played by the flute in the beginning and transformed throughout the 2 movements of this piece is a delight. Although it wasn't Debussy who orchestrated this piece, it nevertheless retained a charming trademark Debussy orchestral writing. I was less impressed with the theme of the second movement: it was too popular sounding, not unlike the main theme of the finale of Franck's symphony. Not of it matters so much as the music pleased me very much and MSO's playing was wonderful here, at least until the piece ended! There was a little accident in the end where after the piece reached its marvelous climax in the end, a percussionist accidentally dropped the cymbals, ruining the silence in the end. It was quite a hilarious moment, and some MSO musicians actually let out a big 'awwwwwwww' noise. The audience also laughed at it and gave a warm applause.

Matthew Barley gave a wonderful reading of the much beloved Elgar's cello concerto. His cello produced a very rich-sounding tone and his technique is impeccable. He displayed a very mature reading of the concerto and played wonderfully in the third movement.

The performance of Prokofiev's fifth symphony impressed me most. Here, Tortelier conducted without a score and produced wonderful interpretation of this symphony. After unsettling me successfully in the 'unstable' slow first movement, he danced through the relentless Scherzo rhythm in the second movement. The third movement grew from being somber to violent and eventually turned into a sort of funeral march with plenty of sarcastic trills in the winds and strings. The finale is a tour-de-force for the (large) symphony orchestra. The orchestra for this piece is very huge, requiring a large number of strings, woodwinds, massive percussion sections, and a piano (this also happened in Debussy's piece). It's a real treat to watch a large number of percussionists playing all sort of instruments, providing additional level of excitements into this relentless marching finale.

I'm very impressed with Tortelier's interpretations of all the pieces and looking forward to his next concert where he'll be conducting Rachmaninov' symphonic dances next week.