Monday 22 November 2010

Australian Chamber Orchestra
Richard Tognetti, artistic director of
The Australian Chamber Orchestra. Source: AdelaideNow

IS it a virus? Conspiracy? or Coincidence? Something funny happened to four separate chamber ensembles this year.
All extended their instrumental comfort zones, three to include singers - Teddy Tahu Rhodes (Australian String Quartet), Lisa Harper Brown (Seraphim Trio) and Taryn Fiebig (Selby and Friends).
Australian Chamber Orchestra trumped them all in ambition. From the Beethoven Violin Sonata no 9 in A major, nicknamed Kreutzer for its dedication, the web spread to Tolstoy's novella of music, marriage and murder, The Kreutzer Sonata, and thence to Janacek's String Quartet No.1, inspired by the Tolstoy story.
Laura Wade's Tolstoy realisation of the story and its undercurrents - the intimacy of people who make music together - was eloquently delivered by actors Samuel West and Robin McLeavy.
Seated on opposite sides of the stage, they revealed the growing attachment of married woman and visiting violinist between movements of the Beethoven, arranged by leader Richard Tognetti, who was on fire in the solo part.
The contrast of timbres between violin and piano was sacrificed for the extra bulk of the ACO strings, easily read as raging jealousy. One violin, one piano would give Wade's text all the musical and visual support it needs.
Likewise for Janacek. Imagine the intimacy of a quartet of strings as the setting for the two actors, rather than 16 as in Tognetti's arrangement.
Posted by Kaiti at 15:47
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