THE METROPOLITAN ORCHESTRA : ‘SUMPTUOUS STRINGS’ @ CONGRESS HALL

Above: TMO’s Artistic Director Sarah-Grace Williams and members of TMO Strings. Featured:  Duo Histoire’s Murilo Tanouye and Nicholas Russoniello. 

The recent TMO Met Concert #3 was an evening of exciting firsts. A new city venue option of the Congress Hall in Elizabeth Street successfully accommodated this event. As with many Met Concerts in any TMO subscription year, a world premiere composition, or arrangement in this case, added to the programmes richness. This concert contained the first collaboration between TMO and Duo Histoire, performing a version of Piazzola’s Double Concerto, arranged by saxophonist Nicholas Russoniello. When we heard this rewarding arrangement for the first time, the blend of strings, guitar and saxophone would have been a first for many in the crowd.

This concert featured TMO strings separated from the rest of the orchestra. This capable string orchestra presented famous and signpost works from the genre with pleasing precision and blend.

TMO’s Artistic Director Sarah-Grace Williams deftly guided all possibilities for shifting string timbres and articulation through the range of works string orchestra works by nineteenth and twentieth-century composers.

The programme began in shimmering and stunning fashion with a beautifully contained and restrained rendition of Samuel Barber’s well-known Adagio for Strings (a movement arranged in 1936 from his String Quartet Op 11). The organic emotional growth and extremely gradual crescendo required in this opening musical moment celebrated both Barber’s ingenuity and the expressive skills of this group. It was a highlight of the concert to hear such a popular piece of music offered to the assembled with such freshness.

Following this atmospheric opening, the stand-alone group from TMO delivered the first of two suite-style items on the programme. This was Gustav Holst’s St Paul’s Suite (1912). TMO’s perfectly unified string orchestra formation played this work with crisp clarity and entertained us with intelligent phrasing and crisp contour. There was significant warmth in the playing and contrasts of character were clearly explored. Shifting string colours across the ensemble and as required by each movement displayed the refinement and expressive control of TMO strings.

This Met Concert’s collaboration between TMO and Duo Histoire was a seamlessly evocative affair. It made for a pleasing change of pace and atmosphere towards the centre of the concert programme. Further enhancing the previously heard orchestral string tone colours, Murilo Tanouye, guitar, and Nicholas Russoniello, saxophone, performed the Double Concerto by Astor Piazzolla.

In this hybrid Argentinian composition where Piazolla brought his native sounds to the European concert stage tradition, TMO Strings’ lithe supportive structures highlighted the intricate virtuosity of the guest duo. The pair spoke to us and each other in a focused dialogue with cool finesse and a fine balance between their instrument and with the accompanying subtleties and rhythmic intricacies from the string orchestra.

What made this special TMO Strings Met Concert truly sumptuous was the programming in the second half of two absolute hits of the string orchestra repertoire to bring this showcase home. We heard Grieg’s Holberg Suite Op 40, (1884) followed by the prodigious orchestrator Mendelssohn’s single movement String Symphony No 10 (1823).

The Holberg Suite resumed the high standard of string energy after interval with some clearly delineated dance and suite movements. Particularly notable was the generally bold rich tone with which this ensemble brought each movement to life. A beautiful poise was unwavering throughout the fourth or ‘Air’ movement. Both the tempo choice and also the momentum maintained during the opening ‘Praeludium’ and the concluding ‘Rigaudon’ ensured both the traditional elements of the suite were well looked after.  The listeners were offered up a string of movements to complement each other with no dull or down periods.

In the concluding Mendelssohn movement, TMO strings devoted sensible and strong effort to ensure a well-balanced realisation of the composer’s complex scoring. As with the preceding works, TMO Strings showed they have found a definite voice. We anticipate future concerts from this orchestra’s string team. We also sing their praises for the strong, unified voice we heard ably express classic works for string orchestra in this unique and successful TMO Met Concert.