Ben Apfelbaum

AUTRALIAN HAYDN ENSEMBLE – BEETHOVEN RECITAL @ UTZON ROOM SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE

Beethoven could not have imagined a more glorious backdrop to his music than we experienced on Saturday  15th October! Not the cherubs and ornate cornices of the Viennese concert halls but the heavenly vista of Sydney harbour seen through the panoramic windows of the Utzon Room at Sydney Opera House.

We listened to a most interesting rendering of Beethoven’s  4th piano Concerto in G major and his Second Symphony, both transposed for a chamber ensemble and performed by the talented and enthusiastic Australian Haydyn Ensemble.

Clearly these musicians have a great depth of scholarship and performed on instruments from the time the music was composed. Both of these pieces were composed when Beethoven was almost completely deaf and both are reflective of his anguish, his joy in music and his pure genius of invention!

Not for nothing is his music often called the bridge from darkness to light! The concerto was performed before interval with Neal Peres Costa as soloist playing a replica Conrad Graf Fortepiano (c1820). It has been  arranged for this group by Vi King Lim.

It was an unusual experience hearing 7 instruments  take on all the voices of a full orchestra. I found myself, at times, longing for that wall of sound that the orchestra provides and the rich full sound and emotional cadences that a really good Steinway in the hands of a passionate pianist can give to Beethoven. That said, Neales Peres Costa did an excellent job of extracting all he could from his 19th century instrument and particularly in the first movement cadenza and in the third movement his rendition was intelligent, fluid and strong.

Costa  was supported, again in the third movement by a most talented troupe of players who produced a very warm and accurate performance. At other times, such as in the larghetto, I did not feel that there were enough voices to do justice to Beethoven’s complexity and at times, instead of expressing the profound emotion of this movement, the sound was merely dissonant.

The arrangement of the Second symphony in D major was far more successful. Perhaps this was because it was by Girolamo Masi a contemporary of Beethoven and completed thirteen  years after the symphony was composed. Here, the fortepiano, because it was not a solo instrument really enhanced the whole sound and this piece, full of  light and joy was a pleasure to listen to from start to finish . Leading the troup was talented first violinist Anna

McMichael, playing a Camillus (1742) violin with a glorious sound. She was ably supported by the whole ensemble. They played with commitment , unity and fabulous  vitality and verve. In particular there were some haunting cello moments from Anton Baba and beautiful flute work from Melissa Farrow, producing the most interesting and complex sounds on a copy of a 19 th century flute.

The talented Australian Haydn Ensemble really deserved the full house they got at this concert. The warm applause at the end was well deserved.

Featured image- The Australian Haydn Ensemble. Pic Ben Apfelbaum.

Published by Ben Apfelbaum

My photography began when my father handed me the proverbial brownie box camera as a child. As cameras developed I went through Fujica and Olympus range finders graduating to my first single lens reflex camera, the Minolta SRT101, the latter being the greatest facilitator to my growth as a photographer. Digital photography has only added to this. I was a regular contributor to Camera Craft magazine (Australian Camera ) for over three years. During Australia’s Bicentennial year (1988) I made it a personal project to document the celebrations. This culminated in the creation of a book of my photos which was published in 1989. The book was called CELEBRATING AUSTRALIA and came with an accompanying calendar. My works have appeared in a number of publications including the coffee book entitled MY AUSTRALIA (1989), publisher Robertsbridge Severn. This book had a preface by the then Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke. I was a co-photographer on a book entitled SYDNEY- DISCOVER THE CITY with text written by Robert Treborland. Major Mitchell Press was the publisher. Also for two years I was the photographer for calendars celebrating Sydney’s multicultural communities. The two calendars were entitled MULTICULTURAL SYDNEY. My work appeared in a group exhibition held at Sydney’s Town Hall pertaining to the diversity of life in South America to raise money for orphanages there. I have over one hundred photos stored in the New South Wales State Library archive. I had a solo exhibition held in 2007 entitled Ben’s Lens at the Sydney Jewish Museum which celebrated the vibrancy of the Sydney Jewish community. Some of these photos are on the Museum’s permanent display. I have exhibited internationally firstly at the Spruill Gallery in Atlanta Georgia, united states, and in an exhibition entitled Kosher and Co at the Jewish Museum in Berlin. Currently I am a regular contributor to J-Wire and this esteemed publication.