Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. Adelaide Town Hall. 31 May 2025
And no sooner has it begun, and it’s over, and a new golden era for the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra is in full flight.
Of course I’m referring to the ASO’s Brahms Symphonies festival, and to the triumph that is the appointment of Mark Wigglesworth as the new Chief Conductor of the ASO and him leading the orchestra through what has been a magnificent performance of the four Brahms symphonies, and he conducted them all from memory!
The fourth and final concert in the series was eclectic in its programming: with the Brahms Symphony No.4 in E minor, Op.98, we heard Debussy’s Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, and the Australian première of Sir Stephen Hough’s Concerto for Piano (the world of yesterday) with no other than himself at the piano!
The Prelude is a lush piece, rich with totally appealing melodies that unfold and sustains interest from the first to the very last note. Indeed, a cornucopia of melody is a feature of the entire program. Principal flute Kim Falconer plays the opening theme of the Prelude and her musicianship is totally exposed for everyone to enjoy, and she comes up trumps as the purest and most heady tones are coaxed from her instruments. Not to be outdone, principal clarinet Dean Newcombe enters soon after with equally intoxicating tones, and then concertmaster Kate Suthers produces astonishingly ethereal sounds on violin as the full orchestra unfolds. Wigglesworth doesn’t interfere with the Debussy’s plan although there is the occasional judicious rubato as if the orchestra is yearning to luxuriate in what Debussy offers. The performance is a joy.
Debussy’s Prelude came at a time when the dictates of German (and Russian) music were being pushed gently aside as composers started exploring and developing new structures and sounds. They of course would not have been able to do that without standing on the shoulders of the giants who came before them, and the same is true of Hough’s piano concerto. At Hough’s own admission, his The World of Yesterday concerto takes inspiration from those composers who have inspired him throughout his own career, but the concerto is not derivative. It starts earnestly in a romantic manner, and is filmic throughout (again, at Hough’s own admission), and it strives to lose its romantic and filmic bonds to become something else. An extended cadenza follows that is dizzying to watch and settles on a short-lasting melody that explores its tonality. The prelude and cadenza first movement segues almost without stop into a suite of variations on a waltz rhythm and Hough’s scoring is delicate, almost thin at times, and grandiloquent at others. The marriage of gentle percussion (such as xylophone, snare drum) and piano in the second and third movements is especially effective, and the brisk rising and falling passage work from both piano and orchestra adds to the ever-present impression of driving momentum. It’s as if the piece doesn’t want to finish and is ever searching out new ways to build on practises of the past and brand ‘today‘ and ‘tomorrow yet to come’ on them!
Hough again demonstrated remarkable musicianship and showed us why he is at the height of his pianistic powers and one of finest musicians around. The audience applause was generous, loud and appropriately lengthy. Hough and Wigglesworth embraced and their mutual respect and admiration for each other is palpable. Hough’s concerto was composed mostly during the pandemic and was co-commissioned by the ASO. What superb foresight from the ASO!
But, to remind us from where we have come, musically speaking, what better than to finish with Brahm’s uber -melodic fourth symphony, which is surely at the pinnacle of his musical output. It’s iconic opening is well loved, and well known by concert goers, and so it was mildly surprising but pleasing that Wigglesworth took it at a marginally slower and measured pace than perhaps we are used to . Again, he conducted the symphony from memory and never, if the reader will excuse the expression, ‘missed a beat’! The first movement features a lush string section which announces a melody to which we often return. A sort of oasis. Before finding its way back to this refuge, the composition frequently flirts with contrasting rhythms and tempi, but Wigglesworth ensured the ‘oasis’ was consistent and reliable, and the audience luxuriated in it: there were many closed eyes and gently swaying heads.
As has often happened in this festival, there was spontaneous applause from the audience at the end of the first movement. Dean Newcombe’s plangent entry on clarinet in the early bars of the second movement was sublime, and the bombast of the third movement had the audience on the edge of their seats. The third movement is marked allegro giocosa, and it is almost exhausting from a listener’s perspective, so much so that its exuberant ending could easily be a suitable end for the symphony, but Brahms had more to say. The allegro energico e passionato fourth movement begins a gentle ‘letting down’ after the explosion of energy in the third, and Brahms skilfully revisits thematic material from the previous movements before an explosive tutti that emphatically says ‘and now I am done’!
The woodwinds, horns and brass were excellent during the symphony, and indeed throughout the entire program, and it was fitting that Wigglesworth asked them to take first bows. Wigglesworth also singled out percussionist Sami Butler who mischievously held his triangle aloft to the delight of the audience who laughed heartily. The humour was reminiscent of the March 12, 1984, front cover of the New Yorker magazine.
Bravo ASO. Bravo Mark Wigglesworth. Bravo Sir Stephen Hough. What a magnificent series of concerts. The future looks grand!
Kym Clayton
When: 31 May
Where: Adelaide Town Hall
Bookings: Closed
