Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. Adelaide Festival Theatre. 23 Jul 2016

 

This concert was simply breathtaking and internationally famous Australian conductor Simone Young is a force of nature.

 

Young positioned the forces of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra in a non-traditional arrangement with the violins spread across the breadth of stage and the brass more centralized in the back ranks. It evened the sound out and imbued it with warmth – it worked a treat, especially with Schubert’s wonderfully evocative Unfinished Symphony in B minor. It began with the softest brooding lines from the double basses and was roundly contrasted with loud stabs from the violins and celli. Young insisted upon, and gained superb articulation, from the orchestra – it’s never been better – and the pure emotion of the symphony washed over us.

 

But the main event came after the interval in the form of Mahler’s deeply moving Tragic Symphony No 6 in A minor. Coming in at nearly eighty minutes, the Tragic requires supreme concentration and physical endurance and the expanded orchestra that filled the Festival Theatre stage was up to the challenge. The ASO last performed the 6th in 2011 under Arvo Volmer, which was a deeply satisfying performance as I recall, but tonight’s performance was better. Young has a clear affinity for Mahler and she understood the ‘ying and yang’ of the 6th. It is a composition full of contrasts: it is tonal and then atonal at times; it has both sweeping melodies and irritating fragments that recur and vary in search of something that is almost unattainable; it is classical in form, but then breaks out into less conventional structures that are, and were, inventive; almost signifying a new musical order.

 

The 6th is a roller coaster and Young and the Adelaide Symphony orchestra held us by the scruff of our throats until the symphony’s very last agonizing sigh, and then all hell broke loose. Young took numerous bows to thunderous and persistent applause from a very large and appreciative audience that was on its feet. Young acknowledged in turn every section of the orchestra, as indeed she should have, for it was a superb performance.

 

The audience left deeply satisfied knowing it had experienced something quite rare.

 

Kym Clayton

 

When: 23 Jul

Where: Festival Theatre

Bookings: Closed