The Australian review of Beethoven 4

Perfect match for Tognetti's Beethoven

THE Australian Chamber Orchestra's last national touring program for 2009 notes two anniversaries with unlikely connections: 20 years ago, the world witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall and 20 years ago, Richard Tognetti signed up with the ACO.

Over his long stewardship, Tognetti has unfurled his views on Beethoven. In recordings and live performances, he has interrogated the sonatas, chamber pieces, symphonies and concertos. What emerges is "Tognetti's Beethoven", often contentious but never dull.

Tognetti has given us Beethoven that is alive and hot, as fresh and memorable as those events in Berlin two decades ago. Some have questioned the dazzling tempo changes and exhilarating range of dynamics but that scepticism is worn down by the cheers that habitually greet the ACO's investigations.

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The coupling of the fourth symphony and fourth piano concerto is classic Tognetti. Both originated from the same year (1807), both seem almost operatic in internal drama. Collectively occupying more than 70 minutes, the two works complement each other in surprising ways.

In Dejan Lazic, Tognetti has met his match. Born in Zagreb in 1977, this young Croatian composer-pianist has already been highlighted among tomorrow's superstars.

Lazic and Tognetti share a view of Beethoven that is provocative, unorthodox, at times capricious but ultimately persuasive. Theirs was a titanic duet-duel, not without its moments of anxiety, and Tognetti might be better advised to conduct from the podium, not from the leader's position.

Lazic is as mercurial and magisterial as the music he played. While his cadenzas bordered on the outrageous, his single encore, a beguiling morsel of Scarlatti, touched the soul.

As concert-opener, Brett Dean's Testament examined Beethoven's deafness, essayed in the Heiligenstadt Testament of October 1802. Therein Beethoven laments the gradual disappearance of the sensual experience of physical sound. Himself a witness to the fall of the Berlin Wall, Dean has recast his 2002 piece for the viola section of the Berlin Philharmonic for a Beethoven-sized orchestra. The ethereal memories of a Beethoven quartet that float through the work's 16 minutes are dispelled by a furious finale. This is a reminder of Dean's self-placement at the core of our European heritage and testament to his own position as a towering figure in our musical landscape.

For its many revelations, the ACO's farewell to this anniversary year will live long in the memory.

Vincent Plush | The Australian | 16 November 2009