Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
Sidney Myer Music Bowl, February 18
NOTHING stirs this Australian soul like the sound of a didgeridoo; whether it bursts into action during the excellent Sextet by George Dreyfus or becomes part of the nightmare sound-world of the same composer's opera Rathenau, its muffled power and rhythmic inflections in the hands of a master performer reinforce a sense of national identity. In an amalgamation of concerto and tone-poem, William Barton collaborated with Sydney composer Matthew Hindson in Kalkadungu, a celebration of Barton's people, and for some stretches the work is a moving, successful hybrid. But its high points come at moments when the two elements of orchestra and didgeridoo are juxtaposed.
Barton's entrance song as he walked slowly through the bowl had a mesmerising impact, as did the orchestral whirlwinds at the work's start and conclusion. But the core of Kalkadungu came with a solid didg solo combining versatility and drama, followed later by Barton in duet with Robert Clarke's bass drum: a simple instrumental fusion without self-conscious atmospherics. Still, for part of its length, the work's two languages make uneasy bedfellows, despite the earnest efforts of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra under Benjamin Northey and the soloist's prodigious skill.
To open, Northey brought Copland's breezy travelogue El salon Mexico out of mothballs with a firm hand on its catchy disjunct rhythmic interplay, and ended the program with the Sibelius Symphony No. 2, dominated by the penetrating, sinuous oboe of Jeffrey Crellin and notable for the conductor's determination not to dress up a clear-speaking masterpiece.