On May 4th, Maestro Riccardo Muti and the Australian World Orchestra delivered a brilliant and extraordinary concert magnifying the excellence of top Australian musicians.
For those fortunate to have attended the Australian World Orchestra performance conducted by the Italian born living treasure Maestro Riccardo Muti on Friday 4th May at Sydney’s Opera house experienced a most intense sublime musical evening.
The Australian World Orchestra (AWO) now in its seventh year performs just once a year for a week with 3 performances across Sydney and Melbourne. The brainchild of siblings Alexander Briger AO (Artistic Director and Chief Conductor) and Gabrielle Thompson it brings together 86 Australian musicians from the world’s leading orchestras, including the Berlin, Vienna and Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestras, the Chicago and London Symphony Orchestras, and musicians from the Australian state orchestras and local music ensemble.
Its vision is to harness the excellence of these wonderful leading players many of which hold principal positions in international orchestras directed by some of the most renowned conductors. It’s a unique concept which makes for a dazzling experience. Past conductors such as Sir Simon Rattle (2015) described the AWO not just as a “national treasure” but an “international treasure” and Maestro Zubin Mehta has referred to them as “one of the top 10 orchestras on earth”.
Riccardo Muti last visited our shores 15 years ago and this is his second visit and likely to be his last. Over the course of his stellar career, the 76-year-old Naples born conductor has led many of the most important orchestras in the world including the Berlin, New York, Vienna and London Philharmonics, and the Orchestre National de France, was Music Director of the Philadelphia Orchestra from 1980-1992 and Teatro della Scala for 19 years. Since 2010, Riccardo Muti has been Music Director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and has received innumerable prestigious honors including “Honorary Citizen of Sydney” during his last visit to Australia.
This year’s program was tailored to the conductor’s strengths which for Muti is Brahms and Tchaikovsky and definitely Verdi. The Brahms symphonies have been a touchstone for Muti throughout his career and he recorded all of Tchaikovsky’s works during his Philadelphia Orchestra so expectations of this night’s performance were high.
The program opened with the much loved Symphony No. 2 in D Major and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4 in F minor and a surprise Verdi Overture.
Brahms’s Symphony No. 2 is one of the most cheerful of Brahms’ mature works, so much that it is often called his “Pastoral”. He composed it during a summer holiday in 1877 on the shores of a beautiful Austrian lake.
Muti brought a Verdian quality to Brahms’ Second Symphony. His style is very expressive and romantic. He conducted the opening of the work in the first movement ‘Allegro non troppo’ in a gentle, reflective fashion. It begins with three notes in the cellos and basses that constitute a motto theme repeated in various forms throughout the movement. It’s a well-argued, very finely judged, mellow account of the movement which the AWO played with magnificent tonal depth and sonority. Muti’s attention to the technical demands of this piece are unsurpassed. A highly disciplined conductor who believes in playing the composer’s score as ‘come scritto’, as written without superlatives intended to thrill audiences.
Un ‘pianissimo e’ un vero pianissimo! There are many colors of ‘pianissimo’ in the Italian musical language and Muti is a master at extracting just the right level of musical color from this wonderfully responsive Orchestra.
The second movement ‘Adagio non troppo’ veers at a much slower pace, perhaps a little too slow but in Muti’s very skillful handling of this movement it’s also very sensuous, highly romantic and again finely balanced. It achieves a pleasing balance between the music’s emotional and intellectual elements. Though the mood is more melancholic, the cellos and violas play on beautifully as Muti’s graceful hands sculpture the music to his and the audience’s liking. The restrained intensity of Muti’s face and his elegant figure on stage is quite a sight to behold.
The third expressive movement ‘Allegretto grazioso’ is a rondo like arrangement in five sections. The woodwind with plucked accompaniment from the cellos played beautifully with the right abundance of pizzicato and staccato by the oboe thus producing a most pleasing and uplifting melody.
The fourth movement finale ‘Allegro con spirito’ is both jubilant and electrifying. Muti encourages the music’s natural drive and high spirits, but is still careful to maintain a good sense of balance and clarity. It begins with a quiet transparent melody in the strings and after repetitions in the woodwinds the theme triumphantly set for the full orchestra dominates to the end. The last few minutes culminate in a fortissimo D major chord played by the trombones ending in a great orchestral roar of triumph producing lyrical beauty and power.
The ecstatic audience rewarded Muti with a deafening exuberant cheer and much appreciation.
Muti’s version of the Brahms Symphony No. 2 was simply brilliant and beautifully performed by our ‘A’ listed musicians.
The second half following the interval opened with ‘Tchaikovsky: Symphony No 4 in F minor, Op 36 ‘with a distinctively Russian orchestral sound- deep and dark in contrast. A real masterpiece. Muti is a seasoned Tchaikovsky interpreter having performed it over 45 years. His recording of Tchaikovsky’s Symphonies in the late 70s/early 80s with the Philharmonia, are still highly regarded today.
The main idea of the Fourth Symphony is ‘this is Fate, the force of destiny’. In the composer’s words ‘Fate…hangs perpetually over our heads and is always embittering the soul’. This symphony was one of his greatest works and written at a time of lots of emotional turmoil.
Though Muti treat’s Tchaikovsky like Mozart and expects the players to play with the same refinement and care as Mozart he led a boldly projected performance, taking a tougher and sharper approach to this work whilst displaying his usual acclaimed attention to detail. The conductor drew out the score’s brooding drama with fire and conviction, eliciting playing of comparable power and dedication from the orchestra.
The Fourth Symphony opens with horns, woodwinds and the trumpets unleash the musical equivalent of lightning bolts. It’s very dramatic, so full of dark and light. In the second movement the oboe plays the most exquisite melancholic melody. In the third movement the strings play pizzicato throughout joined by woodwinds later, with some tender and lovely playing by the piccolo as the brass come with ‘pianissimo’ pizzicato strings.
Some drama ensued in the third movement ‘Scherzo’ just before the end of the Coda. An inopportune interjection by someone speaking loudly from the upper Circle box both startled the Conductor and musicians causing some loss of focus and a silent pause. Quickly Muti collected himself and the Orchestra to finish with a glorious fortissimo Coda and with only a minor hiccup in the score.
The “Finale: Allegro con fuoco” was played with great vigor complete with frenzied plucking from the strings and rushing scales bursting through were a real highlight. Tchaikovsky incorporates a famous Russian folk song, “In the Field Stood a Birch Tree”, as the secondary theme. The coda is vigorous and triumphant and the crashing cymbals give the finale a majestic dramatic ending.
The evening closed with a beautiful encore of Verdi’s ‘Overture from Nabucco’ conducted passionately and played beautifully by this superb Orchestra. Muti was in his element again. He and the AWO delivered a magnificent intense performance through to the sustained final note.
Full credits to the dual concertmasters Natalie Chee (1st Concertmaster- SWR Symphony Orchestra, Stuttgart) who led the first half evening’s performance and Daniel Dodds (Artistic Director & Leader- Lucerne Festival Strings) who led the second half along with all players of the AWO.
Overall an exceptional performance by Maestro Muti and the wonderful Australian World Orchestra
Truly a memorable concert.
For more information about the Australian World Orchestra visit their website or Facebook.