MOZART
Concert Hall, Queensland Performing Arts Centre
Monday June 26, 2023
Australian Chamber Orchestra
For this national season outing, the ACO under its artistic director Richard Tognetti enlisted the reinforcement of nine string performers from Melbourne’s Australian National Academy of Music, welcome additions in this Concert Hall’s large space (up, if not sideways) to give some competition to the wind-and-timpani guests also roped in for this all-Mozart night. I heard very few glitches from the combined string corps, which says a lot about the leader’s ability to enlist willing, young colleagues for his individual style of attack on some venerable masterpieces.
In all, we heard three symphonies: the Haffner No. 35 in D Major, the Linz No. 36 in C Major, and the Paris No. 31 in D Major. As a filler/irritant, Tognetti and his forces worked through some of the Idomeneo Ballet Music – the Chaconne and its interludes up to the Piu allegro, leaving out the Passepied, Gavotte and unfinished Passacaille. I don’t know why this suite has enjoyed so much prominence in the last few decades as – like nearly all ballet scores of its time – there’s nothing much of interest going on; apart from the opening bold ritornello (and its welcome reprises), little draws attention. Perhaps it needs to be danced, although it seems that its addition to the score wasn’t performed at the premiere. Still, like much of this program, it featured a lot of D Major.
I had only two carping queries about Tognetti’s Haffner. The first occurred early when the first Allegro‘s opening subject reached its second half and the quaver for all strings (and bassoon) in bars 7 and 9 disappeared. It has been a feature of some previous ACO work that certain phrases are allowed to peak and then die away to nothing; so that, in this case, the tender response to the opening bombast seems to end on an unresolved suspension. In the least best of all possible worlds, the first violins’ C sharp and E in those respective bars has to – at least – sound.
As for the second gripe. it concerns the Menuetto and the hesitations inserted before the second beat of bars 3 and 19. This still puzzles as it breaks the pulse of the dance in half, like a prefiguring of the hesitations in Strauss waltzes that Boskovsky implemented. In the Mozart case, it might give some relief from the tub-thumping insistence of this rustic minuet but it also struck me as an unnecessary preparation for the ensuing violins’ triple-stop chords. Oh, another suspected oddity was that I don’t think Tognetti performed the repeat of the Andante‘s second half.
But, like the other symphonies presented, the performance sounded splendidly clear and poised, capped by a revelatory reading of the final Presto with a laudably energetic response to the quiet opening bars coming in the bar 9 tutti outburst – a delight each time it came up. More praise should be given to the doubled/unison bursts starting at bar 20 where the discipline of the combined string forces impressed with its unflappable accuracy. And the dozen wind were hard to fault, most memorable the Trio‘s oboe/bassoon/horn combination which proved eloquently shaped in its finished phrasing.
Little needs to be added about the Linz reading. Its opening 19-bar Adagio came across with excellent precision and a deft giving-way to the two woodwind lines from bars 10 and 15. As with the preceding work, I’m unsure whether the second movement’s second half enjoyed a repeat but this Andante moved briskly, especially compared to some European orchestral interpretations which can turn these pages into a pretty turgid siciliano. Tognetti allowed some woodwind ornamentation to the oboe and bassoon principals for the Trio; not enough to be distracting but sufficient to infuse some individuality.
Then, this symphony’s Presto conclusion showed the ensemble’s high standards under pressure with a crisp pace set from the start which Tognetti whipped into a near-accelerando during the last ritornello from about bar 383 on, achieving a fine flourish to end this substantial score with controlled ebullience, only a suspicion of horn imperfection to disturb the polished surface.
With flutes and clarinets back into the mix, the Paris matched its companions for verve and execution, particularly the main subject’s syncopations in the concluding Allegro which brought about their usual delight when everything flips back to ‘normal’ in bar 7. As well, the group shone bright lights in the transparent fugato beginning at bar 45 – and we had another near-accelerando to finish the night. But you could find equally brilliant patches in the initial Allegro assai, as in the shapely fluency of the second subject and its statement/response clarity, and the unflustered introduction of triplets at the end of the exposition.
As for the Andante, this gave us an object lesson (if one were needed after what had come before) of the group’s treatment of dynamics, in particular those fp markings. In Tognetti’s realization, neither is treated with emphasis: the initial loud notes aren’t whacked out with emphasis; nor do the following phrases undergo an uncomfortable softness of delivery. In effect, the initial attack is made to stand out from its surroundings but not in a black/white contrast, or like a punch followed by a caress. But this is an instance of the composer at his most whimsically honest, pages where the material is both satisfyingly open-ended and treated with Mozart’s stunning breadth of charity – his gift that keeps on giving, no matter how many times you encounter these pages.
You could find nothing to complain about with the ballet music apart from the fact that it was there. At one stage, I was under the impression that the ensemble was going to preface these pages with the opera’s overture, but that didn’t happen. So we were left to admire the performers’ expertise in handling music that doesn’t demand much in terms of interpretative insight. Still, it expanded your awareness of the sort of work that Mozart undertook across the span of 6 years covered by this program. Still, I would have preferred something like the C Major Symphony No. 34; 5 or 6 minutes longer than the ballet music but welcome for breaking the D Major hegemony.
For all that, when the ACO visits, you have to be grateful, particularly on occasions like this where the ensemble indulges in a guest-less, Classical era program where no distractions stand between performer and listener. I didn’t think that such an event would bring out Brisbane’s music-loving public in significant numbers but, as far as I could tell, the stalls (at least) were well-packed. More to the point, the audience seemed well aware of the high quality of this experience.
O'Connell the Music 