Chamber works for unusual instrument combinations often suffer shabby treatment because there are no permanent groups to play them. Musicians come together for one-off performances, then disband before they've had time to develop a common artistic understanding.
ACO's Great Romantics program offered the perfect solution: three string sextets performed by principal players who work together all the time. These musicians have long since forged a mutual sense of balance and ensemble, leaving them plenty of scope for detail and expression.
Black is the Night was written by Ian Munro to celebrate Richard Tognetti's 20th year as ACO leader and artistic director. It's achingly beautiful: lyrical, expressive and flattering for strings. The ACO sextet combined sweetness with intensity. Tognetti created a rich palette of
colour through his choices of bow speed and vibrato. The quasi-improvised sections of his solo line trailed in and out like someone thinking aloud.
Brahms' String Sextet in G had a refreshing, almost classical clarity. There was none of the heaviness that often dogs performances of Brahms' chamber works but, instead, a transparent sense of balance where every voice could be heard. The ensemble moved and breathed as a whole through a clearly unified vision. First violist Christopher Moore was in particularly fine form, his sound and note shapes well compatible with Tognetti's.
Schoenberg's Transfigured Night was the afternoon's most passionate performance, its potent emotions ebbing and flowing with compelling sincerity. It wrapped up a concert of spectacular playing with an expressiveness from the musicians that seemed truly heartfelt.
Anna McAlister | Herald Sun | 17 Jun 2009
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