Beethoven 8 Review IV

For its final Canberra concert for the year last Saturday night, the Australian Chamber Orchestra led by Richard Tognetti was augmented to 19th century symphonic proportions of 24 strings together with eight woodwinds, six brass and timpani.

This allowed for the programming of a pair of major symphonic works by Brahms and Beethoven respectively, each very far from being the usual musical fare for a conductor-less chamber orchestra.

Yet such was Tognetti’s almost hypnotic direction of musical forces that the performances were not only constantly arresting in their musical qualities but also highly satisfying as expressive realisations of each compostion.

The Brahms Concerto for violin and cello in A minor, Op 102, is a late work of the composer and shares the warm expressive glow that suffuses so much of his later compositions.

It is a fine work, but rarely heard in the concert hall, mainly for the problem of obtaining two matching soloists. For this performance Tognetti was ably partnered by the Finnish cellist Timo-Veikko Valve, who joined the orchestra in 2006.

They provided a performance to relish, with the glorious slow movement realised by both soloists and orchestra in playing that had a true Brahmsian expressive glow.

The only reservation was that in the more vigorous moments of the outer movements the cellist sometimes could have provided a more forward tonal projection.

Beethoven’s Symphony No 8 in F, Op 83 is in many ways the composer’s most characteristic symphony, typical of his mature works in its concise utterance.

It received a highly charged performance, though the textures and rhythms were suitably lightened in the scherzando and menuetto movements.

And the finale made an exciting conclusion to the program which had started with an exuberant performance of the Symphony No 1 in D, Op 25, of Prokofiev, his so-called “Classical Symphony” because in form it looks back to the late-18th century symphony. But in its cheeky scoring it could never be mistaken for that period, being so typical of the composer with its 20th century musical content.

It was played with engaging elan, with tempos that were fast but crisply delineated, and it made a highly appropriate introduction to the musical delights to follow.

W.L. Hoffman | The Canberra Times