Australian chamber orchestra
Reviewed by Peter McCallum
November 23, 2010
TOLSTOY had a fine understanding of music and an even better one of human relationships. That is why his novella The Kreutzer Sonata, which equates music's power with lust and disapproves of both, is disconcerting, for its fundamentalist condemnation of the erotic.
Tolstoy opined that human sex was ''swinish'', which may be unfair to pigs, and which his wife thought inconsistent with his actions.
The story is told through the words of a traveller who meets a wife murderer on a train. The wife's story is never told, a situation Laura Wade has addressed in two elegantly paired playlets, performed between the movements of Beethoven's original Violin Sonata, opus 47, the Kreutzer, in the first half, and Janacek's First String Quartet, The Kreutzer Sonata, in the second.
Tolstoy opined that human sex was ''swinish'', which may be unfair to pigs, and which his wife thought inconsistent with his actions.
The story is told through the words of a traveller who meets a wife murderer on a train. The wife's story is never told, a situation Laura Wade has addressed in two elegantly paired playlets, performed between the movements of Beethoven's original Violin Sonata, opus 47, the Kreutzer, in the first half, and Janacek's First String Quartet, The Kreutzer Sonata, in the second.
The Beethoven half tells the lovers' story, as though adultery had occurred, with the wife arguing for equal promiscuity rights for women. The dialogue was economic and telling, with actors Samuel West and Robin McLeavy creating a polished cameo.
Beethoven fared less well. Not only was his sonata for violin and piano misinterpreted by Tolstoy, it was further distorted by being arranged here as a chamber concerto, changing its sense of musical discourse. Moreover, the performance was not good, with a harsh, scratchy sound from the strings (which seemed to be exacerbated by amplification), illogical and distracting tempo changes, and worryingly rough intonation from the orchestra leader and soloist, Richard Tognetti.
The performance of Tognetti's string orchestra arrangement of Janacek's String Quartet No. 1 in the second half was much better, not only because the orchestral sound and style were more apt and polished but because the volatile nature of the work lent itself to dramatic interludes - though whether Janacek, who had his own idea of the music's story, would agree is a different question.
This time the wife was innocent of infidelity, with Wade's text exploring the fundamentalist tendency to blame women for men's lust, which is like blaming Beethoven for Tolstoy's hang-ups.
This concert is repeated today at 8pm and tomorrow at 7pm at City Recital Hall, Angel Place.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/music/australian-chamber-orchestra-20101122-1841v.html#ixzz1qzMljSPx
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