Dawn Upshaw Review (Canberra)

Vincent Plush, The Australian, 2 February 2009

In September 2003, American soprano Dawn Upshaw strode onstage at the Brisbane Concert Hall with the Australian Chamber Orchestra. There was cheering before she had sung a note, and there were tears after her last.

After that single concert, Upshaw fell ill, her tour abandoned. Over the intervening years, she has performed with the ACO in North America and now she has returned for a national tour.

Their musical love affair continues today. Rarely does this level of empathy and affection manifest itself in performances of such celestial standard. Upshaw's angelic voice is pure, crystal clear, rapturous and every bit as enchanting as heard on her 50-plus recordings.

In a sense, the program was almost irrelevant. Upshaw could have sung wedding telegrams and utterly captivated her audience. Folk music launched this musical honeymoon, five quirky epigrams from Bartok, orchestrated by Richard Tognetti, and three touching songs from Osvaldo Golijov that moved beyond Luciano Berio's Folk Songs in their subtle simplicities.

Cat-gut strings and period horns and oboes ensured Mozart was in good form. A skittishly robust rendition of his 29th Symphony led to a similarly animated performance of the E flat Sinfonia Concertante for violin and viola.

In this first glimpse of a new ACO recording project for the BIS label, Tognetti was joined by violist Christopher Moore. Their musical banter was beguiling and persuasive, but for the perilously fast tempo of the final movement.

Perth-based composer James Ledger provided Restless Night, the first of several commissions celebrating Tognetti's 20th year with the ACO. The piece groaned under the weight of too many ideas for its meagre six minutes, as Ledger's Bartok-like insect sounds were swatted by gratuitous rock rhythms.

The final work left the most enduring memory, with Upshaw returning to sing Richard Strauss's Morgen. In these few minutes, five years of absence were abundantly rewarded. I want this music at my funeral.

Pleasingly, Katherine Kemp's acutely perceptive notes in ACO programs are now available free and online.

While the acoustic of the refurbished Llewellyn Hall is bright and cheering, being there can be a trial: traffic jams in the aisles, inadequate foyer space and no water bubblers. And why is a centre aisle OK for graduations but not for concerts? A new national performing arts centre for Canberra's centenary in 2013 would be a very good thing, and the ACO should engage Upshaw immediately for their first performances there.