Celebrating its 50th anniversary, the Australian Chamber Orchestra and director Richard Tognetti brought Bach and Shostakovich to the Barbican. They were joined by Alexander Melnikov (harpsichord and piano) and trumpeter Jeroen Berwaerts in an evening of darkness and light.
Beginning with Tognetti’s arrangement of Bach’s Ricercar a 6 from The Musical Offering, they played as they entered the stage, the theme split into individual, aggressively struck notes. Then the dynamic dropped, and they built the theme up into sustained, clustered textures. They eventually shifted into more familiar territory in relation to the source, producing a rich, full string sound to conclude. Pared down to nine, plus Melnikov on harpsichord, the Third Brandenburg Concerto had lively pace, brightness and understated dynamics, allowing for joyful interplay of solo lines. There was plentiful lush vibrato here, but articulation was nevertheless tight in the extremely fast Allegro.
From the get-go, Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto no. 1 in C minor had a chamber feel, players circled closely around the piano, and Melnikov risking a crick in his neck checking in with Tognetti over his shoulder. Melnikov added bite to the circus romps – there must always be a darkness lurking, however jaunty Shostakovich gets. He also gave the slow movement a gentle lilt, over the soft string waltz, but then following the rhapsodic solo came hefty wildness, with thundering low notes. Muted strings returned a breathy calm, combined achingly with Berwaerts’ muted trumpet. High G-string drama from the violins preceded a race into the finale, with trumpet fanfares and tumbling piano.
Scary hammer blows and clattering strings, as well as wailing from Berwaerts drove through to a lightning cadenza from Melnikov, before a wicked accelerando into the finish, Berwaerts defiant major fanfares blasting through. All concerned certainly delivered excitement, but also the darker uncertainty that lurks beneath its surface frivolity. Melnikov and Berwaerts’ encore maintained the mood, with the bleak final chorale (“Alle Menschen müssen sterben”) from the third movement of Hindemith’s Trumpet Sonata. Berwaerts delivered Hindemith’s drawn-out setting with stately solemnity and impressive control, over strangely lilting piano rhythms from Melnikov.
There was no mention of Sofia Gubaidulina’s sad recent passing, but the lights were dropped for her Reflections on the Theme B-A-C-H, exploring the twisting nature of the four-note motif from The Art of Fugue. The ACO ratcheted it up with searing intensity to a screeching climax, with eery glissandi peppering the route along the way. The lights rose as the players segued into Bach’s Fugue in E flat major, and there was suddenly a lightness in the air in their graceful treatment.
Back to Shostakovich – Barshai’s arrangement of the Eighth String Quartet, retitled the Chamber Symphony in C minor. Whatever the inspiration (the bombing of Dresden, a memorial “to the victims of fascism and war” or Shostakovich’s own personal despair), it is definitely a bleak uttering. Shostakovich apparently approved of Barshai’s version, but there are gains and losses. The second movement’s violence and the macabre waltz are all the scarier with added weight, as are the fourth movement’s stabbing fateful knocks, and the ACO were suitably terrifying. But the sparse decay of the finale is harder to achieve, and the final resolution feels more hopeful somehow than in the more exposed quartet. However, the ensemble here brought intensity and commitment, and the second movement’s wild dance was indeed disturbing.
Their encore provided much-needed balm with Thomas Adès’ O Albion, from his Arcadiana. Its warmly romantic lines and thickly layered textures suited the rich ACO sound, giving them freedom to enjoy weighty vibrato, and going some way to banish the unsettling horrors of the Shostakovich.
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