Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. Adelaide Town Hall. 13 Sep 2025
Shadows is possibly the best concert in the Adelaide Symphony Series for a number of years. It’s a risky term to use, but ‘world class’ comes to mind when trying to describe how one feels about this recent concert. The programming was inspired, the soloist in the concerto was amongst the best you could ever hear, and the conductor’s reading of everything on the program together with his finely balanced control of the orchestra was gobsmacking inspired. This was a concert that put a broad smile on your face (and kept it there for many hours), stirred your soul, and invigorated your appetite to revisit the same music later in the comfort of your own home hoping the experience approached what you enjoyed in the concert hall.
The concert featured Australian composer Peggy Glanville-Hicks’ delightful Three Gymnopédies, Benjamin Britten’s exciting Concerto for Violin No.1, Op.15, and Dmitri Shostakovich’s epic and stirring Symphony No.10 in E Minor, Op.93. These three compositions sharply contrast with each other and evoke markedly different responses from the listener.
Peggy Glanville-Hicks’ Three Gymnopédies are impressionistic miniatures, that are clearly inspired by Erik Satie but have an Australian sensibility. Their delicate textures and tender songfulness create a sense of tranquillity and meditation. Each movement evokes a sense of the fleeting, and is understated yet evocative with subtle shifts in colour and phrasing.
Benjamin Britten’s Violin Concerto No. 1 contrasts sharply with the restraint of the Gymnopédies. Written on the eve of World War II, it teems with tension and emotional depth. The opening movement’s poignant lyricism transitions to an aggressive scherzo, and the concluding passacaglia builds in relentless intensity. The dialogue between soloist and orchestra is scintillating, and violinist Clara-Jumi Kang relished in contrasting the composition’s lyric beauty and sharp, modern ‘edges’. Her technique is very impressive, with much intricate double stopping and simultaneous bowing and plucking of strings.
Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10, composed after Stalin’s death, is monumental and profoundly dramatic. Its vast first movement is brooding and expansive, and the second is a biting, whirlwind scherzo. Much has been written about the extent to which Shostakovich intended the symphony, and especially the second movement, to be a political comment about the welcome death of Stalin. The extent to which this is true is irrelevant, and the music stands by itself. It is passionate, emotional and brooding. The third movement introduces Shostakovich’s personal DSCH motif (i.e. the notes D-E flat-C-B), while the finale moves from gloom and darkness to a triumphant and defiant close. The raw power of the orchestra throughout is almost overwhelming, and conductor Mark Wigglesworth gives an exemplary reading and never fails to allow all featured instruments to shine through above the ensemble.
Indeed, it was a true delight to have so many of the ASO’s musicians foregrounded throughout the unfolding of this monumental work (that lasts for almost an hour) and of the Three Gymnopédies and the Concerto for Violin. Together, the three works trace a journey from intimate reflection to political and emotional upheaval.
At the end of the concert, not a murmur could be held in the auditorium as the final notes of the symphony faded away. And then the audience erupted with heartfelt enthusiasm for what was a superbly rendered concert. Wigglesworth was brought back to the podium multiple times. The audience could not get enough of him, or the ASO.
Kym Clayton
When: 13 Sep
Where: Adelaide Town Hall
Bookings: Closed
