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| ACO leader Richard Tognetti (centre) with actors Robin McLeavy and Samuel West rehearsing Kreutzer vs Kreutzer. |
ACO Kreutzer vs Kreutzer: Review
24 Nov 10 @ 12:39pm by STEVE MOFFATT
Leo Tolstoy would have us believe so - especially when that music is Beethoven’s Kreutzer Sonata.
“Ah, it’s a fearful thing, that sonata”, says self-confessed murderer Pozdnyshev on a train journey with strangers.
The Czech composer Leos Janacek took Tolstoy’s unfinished short story, The Kreutzer Sonata, and put his spin on the tale in his first string quartet. He wrote it from the wife’s point of view.
These three works have been linked by English playwright Laura Wade for the Australian Chamber Orchestra’s farewell to the 2010 season.
It made for a patchy evening. English actor Samuel West and Robin McLeavy - a nominee for best supporting actress in the 2007 Sydney Theatre Awards - were both excellent in the dialogues which introduced each movement, Wade having cast them as musicians as well as lovers and ultimately victims.
And the orchestra, under the lead violin of Richard Tognetti, were as passionate and exciting as ever. But the first half, featuring Tognetti’s orchestration of the Beethoven original, dragged at times.
What it lacked, of course, was the piano which drives the work so fluidly as an equal partner - sometime more than equal - to the violin.
No amount of skilful arranging can make up for its loss and in the opening presto movement the orchestra’s furious bowing occasionally veered between a kletzmer dance band and a Vivaldian ritornello.
No such problem in the second half, however, in which Janacek’s string music translated seamlessly to the larger format. In fact the work is an established favourite in the ACO repertoire.
It was all directed simply and effectively by Sarah Giles, but by this orchestra’s standards it was an unusually flat end to a satisfying season.
You can hear the concert repeated on Wednesday, November 25, at 7pm at Angel Place.
CONCERT: Kreutzer vs Kreutzer Australian Chamber Orchestra
WHERE: City Recital Hall
WHEN: Tuesday, November 23
“Ah, it’s a fearful thing, that sonata”, says self-confessed murderer Pozdnyshev on a train journey with strangers.
The Czech composer Leos Janacek took Tolstoy’s unfinished short story, The Kreutzer Sonata, and put his spin on the tale in his first string quartet. He wrote it from the wife’s point of view.
These three works have been linked by English playwright Laura Wade for the Australian Chamber Orchestra’s farewell to the 2010 season.
It made for a patchy evening. English actor Samuel West and Robin McLeavy - a nominee for best supporting actress in the 2007 Sydney Theatre Awards - were both excellent in the dialogues which introduced each movement, Wade having cast them as musicians as well as lovers and ultimately victims.
And the orchestra, under the lead violin of Richard Tognetti, were as passionate and exciting as ever. But the first half, featuring Tognetti’s orchestration of the Beethoven original, dragged at times.
What it lacked, of course, was the piano which drives the work so fluidly as an equal partner - sometime more than equal - to the violin.
No amount of skilful arranging can make up for its loss and in the opening presto movement the orchestra’s furious bowing occasionally veered between a kletzmer dance band and a Vivaldian ritornello.
No such problem in the second half, however, in which Janacek’s string music translated seamlessly to the larger format. In fact the work is an established favourite in the ACO repertoire.
It was all directed simply and effectively by Sarah Giles, but by this orchestra’s standards it was an unusually flat end to a satisfying season.
You can hear the concert repeated on Wednesday, November 25, at 7pm at Angel Place.
CONCERT: Kreutzer vs Kreutzer Australian Chamber Orchestra
WHERE: City Recital Hall
WHEN: Tuesday, November 23
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