Australian Chamber Orchestra concert 11 July 2010 - Barefoot Fiddler

Featuring:
- Schuetz German Magnificat (transcribed for strings)
- Tigran Mansurian Violin Concerto "Four Serious Songs"
- Sandor Veress Four Transylvanian Dances
- Kats-Chernin Zoom and Zip
- Haydn Violin Concerto in G major
- Vivaldi Violin Concerto, RV. 253, "The Storm at Sea"

Patricia Kopatchinskaja - Guest Director and Lead Violin

To be honest, this is the concert that I am least interested in when looking at the ACO brochure last year. How glad I was to be proven wrong big time - I think I enjoyed this concert as much as the previous 'Romantic Symphony' concert, and it's simply one of the best ACO concerts I have had the pleasure to attend.

With the closure of Hamer Hall, ACO moves its concerts in Melbourne to Melbourne Town Hall. I have previously remarked my concern about the acoustic of Town Hall in regards to the smaller orchestra like ACO in my previous post, but I'm glad that my worst fear is unjustified. The ACO still produces a stellar sound, worthy of a full-sized symphony orchestra, while none of the details are lost. It's a slightly different acoustic than Hamer Hall, true to that, but the change of venue doesn't bother me as much as I was anticipating.

The concert started in a subdued tone with Schuetz's German Magnificat on offering. While the piece was originally written for two choirs, and an organ, ACO performed the strings transcription of it by replacing the two choirs with equally split strings, and the organ with the harpsichord. Schuetz's Magnificat is a smaller in scale compared to say Bach's or Vivaldi's or Monteverdi's and lacking part for solo voices. It's a bit strange for me to listen to a settings of Magnificat without the text sung, but the quality of the composition shone through. I think I would've enjoyed this piece better in a cathedral, and performed in its original settings, due to the pious feel and the restrained exuberant joy. Having said that, I still enjoyed this transcription immensely, due to the ACO's ability to bring out the sonority of different voices in this piece.

We were then transported from the pre-Bach baroque music to 2006. Mansurian's violin concerto "Four Serious Songs" drew its inspiration from the same source as Brahms' late song cycle of the same name. Painting the "transience of life", and described by the composer as "reflections on death", the violin concerto showcased Patricia's technical skills in dispatching high-register notes fearlessly and without any slight hesitations at all, her virtuosity in fast moving passages, and her musical abilities in conveying emotions the music carries in a more meditating passages. The program notes discussed the folk music influence in this piece, and the influence is showed in traces of melody and a more non-conventional harmonies throughout. In one section of the piece, I even felt like I was listening to Khachaturian's Violin Concerto! (Khachaturian is an Armenian, and his violin concerto is imbued with folk music influence too).

The highlight of the concert for me is Sandor Veress' excellent Four Transylvanian Dances, which again, has its roots from folk tunes. The first dance, Lassu, with its long, arching, and yearning melody reminded me a lot of the main melody of Rimsky-Korsakov's third movement of the Scheherazade (the Young Prince and the Young Princess). Ugros, the second dance, is just pure delight, and very fun to dance too that Pat and some members of the ACO swayed their body to the dance rhythm. The third dance, Lejtos was more serious in tone where suddenly in the end, it shifted to a brighter mood. And the last dance, Dobbantos (aka. stomping dance), must be the most memorable piece in the concert. Fast tempos, and dispatched with brilliant virtuosities from the orchestra, and the most memorable bit: Unison feet-stamping from all the musicians (three times, IIRC) that caught the audience by surprise. Marvelous performance!

Kats-Chernin's cheeky Zoom and Zip was next after the interval. Although I found it a bit repetitive at times, the audience was treated by something special in this piece: at one section, Patricia actually sang the main melody of the piece! Although her voice is not a first-rate opera star quality, its sudden appearance makes it very memorable, and her pitch, singing the not so straightforward tonality of the melody, was spot on. I'm not sure if this is an improvisation or not, but I'm more impressed by Patricia's musicianship by the second.

After a series of contemporary music, we were then offered music from the bygone era. Haydn's G major Violin concerto perhaps is not his best work, but Patricia offered a very enjoyable performance, especially the dreamy second movement of the piece, and straight after, dispatching these dreamy qualities with a brilliant finale.

The final piece of the night, Vivaldi's "The Storm at Sea" was published in the same collection as his more famous "Four Seasons". In turn, the fast tremolo passages in the Storm of the Summer movement of the Four Seasons, find its way to the "Storm of the Sea". The Largo was short, and borders on improvisational performance. In the finale, there were 2 members of the orchestra running their fingers up and down the harpsichord strings while the others keep playing. For a baroque piece, I'm surprised to find radical harmonic shifts used by Vivaldi. It's so extreme that it will not be out of place in late-Romantic era music.

After a long applause, Patricia said something to the audience which I didn't quite catch, and subsequently didn't know what's the piece that she and the orchestra played as the encore.

Whoa, this concert was awesome. First of all, it's so unconventional already that a solo violinist played barefooted in the concert, but Patricia's musicianship is something to be admired, and praised. Her constant swaying to the music, stamping, and the energy she brought in to the performance engaged the audience to another level of music enjoyment. For a more seasoned concert-goer, her technical abilities, and her confidence bow attacks reassured us that she is really one of the top violinist in the world. I'm glad I've attended this concert, and really looking forward to attending her concert again next time.