Sixth Classically Melbourne Free Concert
Hamer Hall, July 14
Co-sponsored by 3MBS FM and Orchestra Victoria, the Classically Melbourne concerts are notable for several reasons. They are a means of getting a set of fine musicians out of the pit, where we usually find them supporting Opera Australia and the Australian Ballet, and into the limelight.
The programs are always unpredictable; I suppose, because of the wide range of supporters attracted to 3MBS which remains the only fine-music radio station in Victoria. Just as importantly, the concerts always feature a work by the winner of the station's National Composer Awards.
Bartok's Dance Suite made a telling test opener and some of the Hungarian Dances by Brahms rounded off the program. Although in line with the radio station's embrace of the eclectic, Bartok's collection of dances roused timid approbation from the audience, which warmed up for the following Toccata by Anders Koppel featuring two soloists from the orchestra's ranks: Conrad Nilsson on vibraphone and Guy de Blet on marimba.
This flashy but forgettable work was followed by the prize-winning score, Aristotle's Rhetoric, a seven-movement orchestral suite by Andrian Pertout. We heard the odd-numbered movements of this collection and they made pleasant enough listening. The young composer has an inquiring mind as far as orchestral textures and paired combinations are concerned, although the content of his expresssion falls into the realm of the predictable, shown by the four-square rhythmic nature of his Fear and Confidence segment and the moto perpetuo inevitability of the last Aristotelian discourse, Envy and Emulation.
Attempting to express the ineffable - the Greek philosopher's juxtaposition of opposing emotions, in this case - is a tall order; one only has to look at the populist mess Strauss made of Nietzsche to see the difficulty of such a task. Pertout utilises simple constructional elements and offers an uncomplicated commentary on them. His textures alternate between the subtle and the grandiose, but these four excerpts from the larger work made their points, then stopped - an inestimable gift.
After interval, actor Nick Farnell narrated the easy-going Prokofiev Peter and the Wolf, which found the members of Orchestra Victoria in good form, given plenty of latitude by conductor Johannes Fritzsch who, like his players, is best known to Melbourne for appearances in the State Theatre pit.
While the Brahms dances were in play, I joined quite a few sloping off into the night, more or less content with our two hours of free music, but wishing the evening could have ended with something more scintillating. As well, nobody explained why young composer Yi Ting Gu was given the APRA Encouragement Award, and the donor of the major prize tried my patience with repetitious waffle.