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Brahms & Shostakovich: Gala | WASO |
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Written by Simonne Michelle-Wells
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Sunday, 12 October 2008 |
 Left - Kirill Gerstein. Photo - Manfred Esser
Brahms is a
salve for a weary soul on a Friday night. As you sink into the soft seat at the
concert hall, those deft-handed WASO musicians wrap you up and let you float
for two hours in a musical experience guaranteed to make the working week all
but disappear.
The end of
the Brahms Piano Concerto No1 in D minor was met with such rapturous applause
and hails of “Bravo!” that it’s difficult to imagine it receiving the hisses
and boos that it did when it was first performed. Although not the first to do
so, Brahms wrote the concerto with the effect of musical integration in mind,
where the piano becomes a part of the orchestral effect. In other words,
this is a symphony with piano, rather than a concerto with a piano solo where
the piano features and the orchestra demurs quietly in the background. Too
progressive for its day, it’s now hailed as a masterpiece, and it was certainly
received as one by a rapturous audience on Friday night.
Russian-born pianist Kirill Gerstein was brilliant, and
despite this, seemed to have no desire in making a show-piece out of the piano
concerto. There wasn’t a hint of exhibitionism. (He didn't even wear tails.)
The concerto is a string-lover’s delight and WASO’s string
section was terrific. The concerto also reveals Brahms' interest in scoring for
the French horn. The horn part is notoriously difficult, with or without the
piano, and apart from one or two unfortunate errors, the horn section did extremely well.
To say that Gerstein and conductor Alexander Briger enjoyed
themselves is a huge understatement. I haven’t seen a conductor sweat so
ecstatically in a long time, and the warm hug exchanged onstage between the two
was a sincere expression of joy over a job extremely well done.
The second half of the program was Shostakovich’s Symphony
No. 5.
This is the composer’s most popular work, written in the middle of the
‘Great Terror’ (the years of political repression and persecution
orchestrated by Stalin in the late 30s), and first performed in 1937 in
Leningrad.
It’s a grand and hauntingly beautiful work. The third movement, said to
be a
memorial for Mother Russia and all those who were sent to the labour
camps, is
one of the most despairing pieces of music ever written.
Remarkably, the music in this symphony appealed equally to
both the official Russian critics and the public. The Russian authorities found
in the symphony a rejoicing of a regime, while the public heard it as an articulation
of the suffering by which it had been subjected by Stalin.
A highlight of the third movement was the superbly performed
oboe and flute solos with the hauntingly quiet tremolando of the violas and
violins underneath them.
The stirring percussion in the finale of the 5th
Symphony is a grandiose parody of the Russian military regime and is a
percussionists dream I would imagine. My previous claim that WASO Principal
percussionist Tim White has the best job in the world still stands: at the end
of the Symphony he gets to bang as hard as he likes on a massive drum that
looks like a tambourine on major steroids (we’re talking about as big as a
small car here). What’s more, he gets to end the entire, enrapturously
received, evening’s program.
WASO
Brahms & Shostakovich | Gala
Venue: Perth Concert Hall
Dates/Time: 8pm, Friday 10 & Saturday 11 October
Tickets: $20.00 - $85.00
Bookings: WASO on 9326 0000 or www.waso.com.au
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