Music review: Adelaide Symphony Orchestra’s Born in Vienna
The ASO’s ‘Born in Vienna’ series was a tentative experiment in programming, but one that worked. As before this year, Mark Wigglesworth has proved his worth as the orchestra’s new chief conductor.
The quizzically named ‘Born in Vienna’ concerts might have had one guessing at the start. With a title such as this, thoughts of Johann Strauss waltzes were circulating in the mind, conjuring up visions perhaps of Vienna’s much televised New Year’s Day concerts. But no, this three-part concert series was rather weightier than that. With symphonic works of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert, it attempted to shed light on why Vienna, during their lifetimes, became Europe’s musical hot house.
The first thing to remember, of course, is that Beethoven was not born in Vienna. And to be strict about it, neither were Haydn or Mozart. That pair hailed from nearby Rohrau and Salzburg – not like the German-born Beethoven, who had to travel a distance greater than that of Melbourne to Adelaide to reach Austria’s capital. His journey from Bonn by horse-drawn carriage took two weeks.
That leaves fair Schubert as the only native Wiener. But forget such geographic pedantries. This ‘Born in Vienna’ concert series threw a useful spotlight on a city that provided their spark, and that they chose to call home.
An imposter from the west, we might easily imagine how the 29 year-old Ludwig, arriving in the ‘City of Music’, as it was dubbed, and launching his Symphony No. 1 in C major upon an unsuspecting public. That picture sprang to attention in a performance whose seismic impact reverberated through this concert weekend. Mark Wigglesworth has a particular interest in Beethoven, as his essays on the composer bear out. Here, as the ASO’s newly installed chief conductor, having led the orchestra illustriously in May’s Brahms Symphonies, he was doing similarly with the composer who stamped the genre ever more definitively.
This was a performance of taut strength and at the same time, grace. If Beethoven’s music is built on opposites, it depends on getting that balance right, and Wigglesworth seemed to understand precisely how to achieve this. Under his direction, rhythm was as much about energy as it was beat. This symphony felt like a caged animal, trapped in a box and leaping out in all directions.
This symphony’s opening pizzicato notes possessed an elastic energy that propelled the first movement like a slingshot. Yet countering that, Wigglesworth gave its succession of beautiful themes an archlike shape that expanded its canvas yet further.
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An impactful performance, the orchestra felt absolutely confident under Wigglesworth, responsive to his commands and playing its best.
The mistake can be to think of Beethoven’s First Symphony as a student work. Actually, he had by then quit lessons with ‘Papa Haydn’ and debuted his first two piano concertos. Uncouth though he was, the Viennese already knew him well as the new force in town. Haydn must have felt comprehensively outdone by this violently original first symphonic, although there is no record of him having heard it. One supposes that Mozart, had he still been alive, would have felt the same.
In this first program, Mozart made a brief appearance with his very short Symphony No. 1, composed at the ridiculously tender age of eight. Very likely helped by his dad, Leopold, it’s a sparky little number built around simple contrasts.
But placing this work on the same program felt a bit unfair. In addition to which, its tiny dimensions called for a far nimbler performance than it received. Much more focus could have been placed on the upper strings and phrases could have been lightened off. Doing so might have actually made Joshua van Konkelenberg’s harpsichord audible – which sadly it wasn’t.
Partnering in this opening concert was Haydn’s Sinfonia concertante in Bb major, Op. 84. It’s a good-natured piece dating from the composer’s first trip to London. Convivially, he brings solo violin, cello, oboe and bassoon together as a conversational quartet and sets them against the rest of the orchestra. However, as his sole example in this by-then almost extinct species of concerto, it is in no way a statement work like the Beethoven.
The result in this program was that Haydn, likewise and regrettably, felt short-changed. Even so, one could see glimpses of this most generous of composers in this concerto’s smiling exchanges between instruments. Kate Suthers on solo violin got its spirit most right.
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Mozart thankfully received full comeback in this series by way of the Elder Conservatorium Symphony Orchestra’s performance in the second concert of his ‘Jupiter’ Symphony, No. 41. But for those who missed that performance, there was also his overture to The Magic Flute in the third concert.
Here again, one could admire Wigglesworth’s deeply considered approach. Never mind this overture’s initial fortissimo chords: its protracted silences at the start are what creates its telling effect. Wigglesworth showed commendable boldness, stretching out those rests almost too far.
But surely this is the effect Mozart wanted. A certain uniformity these days in conducting Mozart (and Haydn) means that their silences are often confused with indecision. It means that written-in rests are frequently glided over for fear of creating unaccountable gaps in their music.
One admired the boldness of the ASO’s performance, entirely in keeping with the mysterious Freemason subject of this opera.
A tour of musical Vienna would hardly be complete without Schubert. An equally insightful performance of his last symphony was another highlight of this series.
The terrible fact, of course, is that not one of Schubert’s symphonies was performed during his lifetime. Vienna let down its favourite son, and it’s such a familiar story.
Years later, on discovering the manuscript, Schumann praised the Ninth Symphony’s “heavenly length”. However, in a sense its position in history is still to be determined these two centuries later.
Wigglesworth provided some very convincing answers, showing that it this work needs to be played strictly and compactly, as any classical work should be – or else it takes on a dreary, late Romantic cast and morphs into an altogether different kind of composition.
Yet how forward-thinking is its sound palette. Astonishingly, this symphony anticipates Schumann himself, as well as Dvorak and possibly even Mahler (in the march-like second movement). Wigglesworth’s answer was disciplined, respecting this symphony’s flowing grace while maintaining rhythmic precision. No exaggeration was needed, only attention to detail. One noticed, for instance, how the timpanist (Andrew Penrose, master that he is) continually swapped between hard and soft sticks.
The result was a symphony that owed little or nothing to Beethoven, Mozart, or anybody else. It was all Schubert himself, quietly toiling away and perfecting a music for future ages.
Wigglesworth deserved most of the credit in this crowning performance, but not all. The ASO felt so right with Schubert. Maybe, one even supposed, they play his symphonies better than anyone else’s. Being as receptive as they were here to his warmth and chamber-like interplay between voices, one certainly wants to hear more.
This is a review of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra’s Born in Vienna series, concerts 1 and 3, on November 21 and 22 at Elder Hall