A concert of colour: A music review by Fraser Beath McEwing
Young’s reflected lights, Saint-Saens’ kaleidoscopic second piano concerto and Mussorgsky’s art gallery stroll, resulted in a visually provocative program last night from the SSO under the baton of 39-year-old Estonian Mihhail Gerts.
Marie-Ange Nguci
The program opened with a new composition in the 50 Fanfares Commission, this time by Miriama Young, a sound artist and educator at the Melbourne Conservatorium. Like many of the Australian composers presented in this series, her work has met with acclamation across a variety of sound genres. This, of course, has endeared her to a variety of audiences, but classical music purists might see it as a lack of direction. Be that as it may, Reflections on the Harbour Light was skilfully scored for a relatively conventional symphony orchestra, although her better-known work is for small groups, including electronic media.
Young’s composition was unusual and quite evocative. It began with a solo violin from concertmaster Andrew Haveron, and even when the orchestra joined him, he continued his solitary commentary. Just as the piece seemed ready to take up promising development, we got the chequered flag – after only four minutes. Had the printer run out of paper?
The ever-ready umperlumpers then quickly went to work by squeezing up the chairs to make way for the massive, gleaming Steinway.
Saint-Saens wrote five piano concertos. We heard the most popular, the second – dashed out in a couple of days, apparently, in 1868). You might say Saint-Saens piano concertos are on the reserve bench of the concerto league, where entertainment comes first. Being a prodigy and virtuoso pianist himself, Camille expected extraordinary technique from performers who, among other feats of speed, must produce cascades of single-note runs and arpeggios with athletic precision.
And that’s what we got from soloist Albanian-born Marie-Ange Nguci. If you read my review of her Sydney solo recital on the preceding Monday night, you will know I’ve fallen in love with her playing. Of course, a concerto is a different animal in that there are far fewer opportunities for hushed ppp and a greater call for walloping fff. I didn’t know if the Saint-Saens would suit Nguci as much as solo recitals. But it didn’t take long to dispel any doubt as she laid into the concerto with power and sparkling accuracy.
Her accomplishments, incidentally, reach well beyond the piano. Born in 1997, she holds master’s degrees in musical analysis, musicology and music pedagogy. At the age of 18, she was the youngest candidate to be admitted to study for a doctorate of musical arts at the City University of New York. In her spare time, she also plays organ, cello, studies conducting and speaks seven languages – making her good value at a dinner party.
The major work of the concert was Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, composed in 1874 as a suite of 10 pieces for piano depicting paintings by the composer’s close friend, Victor Hartmann, who had died suddenly the previous year at the age of 39. While it has become a favourite for both pianists and audiences (I can still hear the final thunder of Alexander Gavrylyuk’s Sydney Recital Hall performance a couple of years ago in which he nearly demolished the piano), it was the 1922 orchestrated version by Ravel that the SSO concert offered. It especially illustrates Ravel’s superlative command of orchestration. While the pictures are strikingly vivid in the piano version, they come alive in the Ravel orchestral arrangement.
As one would expect from Ravel, the SSO was fully stocked for Pictures. Besides additions to the standard instruments, Estonian conductor Mihhail Gerts directed chimes, cymbals, gong, bells, ratchet, snare drum, slapstick, xylophone and celesta. Five bull fiddles didn’t seem enough – which suggests to me that the stage is a bit tight on space, despite being redesigned.
Fraser Beath McEwing
Pictures is a real crowd-pleaser with its clearly delineated visuals, it also provides the opportunity for soloists and ensemble groups to break loose and expose their unique sounds. The rare tuba solo in the picture of the struggling ox cart is startling beautiful – especially the way it was realised by Steve Rosse.
While we’ve had many excellent visiting conductors for the SSO, Mihhail Gerts is a standout. There is no doubt that the excitement and unambiguity he brought to Pictures lifted the already acclaimed SSO to another level.
Gerts conducting engagements and their reviews make him one of the major contenders for a place among the legendary conductors of our time and something of a coup for the SSO to have engaged him. One reviewer said: ‘Gerts is a name to remember, thanks to his astonishing precision, highly expressive gestures and warmth.’ Apart from a plethora of international guest appearances he is currently the artistic director of the TubIN Festival in Estonia.
SSO Sydney Opera House concert 8 March 2023
Fraser Beath McEwing is a pianist, commentator on classical music performance and is 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
Dear Fraser, please bear in mind that for the 50 Fanfares Commissions, composers were under instructions as to the length of the work. My brief was to right a work indeed 4 minutes in length. We can all work towards trying to attain longer commissions for contemporary composers, reviewers included.