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Alix Goolden Performance Hall
May 3, 2014
"Music begins where the possibilities of language end. That is why I write music".
Jean Sibelius' Symphony No.2 is viewed as both forging a new symphonic direction but also as a transitional work. The former because Sibelius seems to eschew traditional sonata form replacing it with a more organic (the usual term) style of development; but the second is still a large-scale work and has yet to achieve that concentration which is one of the mature Sibelius' most notable fingerprints.
Peter Butterfield and the Civic Orchestra of Victoria closed their 2013-14 season with a fine performance of the second symphony. It is undoubtedly true that there were minor blemishes - the opening which already almost comes in "under the radar" sounded even more hesitant than usual - but if some of the detail was smudged, the broad brush strokes were superbly done. (Or, to reverse Rossini's judgement on Wagner: there may have been some dodgy moments, but there were magnificent quarters-of-an-hour.)
Each section of the orchestra distinguished itself (each section also had a few moments over which I propose to gloss): the weighty doublebass then cello pizzicatos at the opening of the slow movement; the gorgeous wind during the trio of the third movement - preceded by a marvellously-judged luftpause; the brass, powerful yet smooth-toned throughout, especially impressive at the work's close.
Butterfield, too, impressed with his grasp of the music's structure and seemed particularly adept at the long crescendo - especially apt in Sibelius. The finale, which often seems to outstay its welcome, gripped from start to finish - and I simply cannot fail to mention principal trumpet Becky Major, who was superb, in this context.
Posterity would probably have forgotten Russian physician and hypnotherapist Nikolai Dahl were it not for one patient, whom he saw daily for the first three months of 1900.
Sergei Rachmaninov had been dismayed by the poor reviews of his first symphony and become creatively blocked. Dahl helped him broke through this block; the result was the Piano Concerto No.2, which is dedicated to Dahl.
Rachmaninov's second is perhaps the ultimate Romantic piano concerto, featuring broad sweeping melodies and a virtuosic solo part requiring fingers of steel. It has probably featured in more movies and TV shows than any other piece of music - from the stiff-upper-lippery of David Lean's Brief Encounter of 1945 to Clint Eastwood's 2010 Hereafter. Most recently (Spring 2014) it was used in a BBC situation comedy.
Having sat through a few "by-the-numbers" of the second over the years, I cannot say I was especially looking forward to this one, however I am an admirer of Walter Prossnitz and the Civic rarely, if ever, play anything by the numbers.
Indeed, from the wonderfully-controlled opening solo chords to the sizzling final coda, this was a performance to tickle even the most jaded palate.
Prossnitz was a superb soloist, having the requisite steely fingers and bringing a fine tonal palette to the more lyrical music - of which this concerto has plenty. He is well aware of when he should be in the spotlight and when he is accompanying - it is a pity that the acoustic of the Alix Goolden Hall and the relatively small number of strings sometimes undermined this - I could scarcely hear the main theme of the opening movement, for example, because the violas were, from my position, directly behind the piano.
This insufficiency of strings was perhaps most noticeable in the slow movement; nevertheless, overall the sound was good, it opened up beautifully at the climaxes and the rubato, some of which was fairly extreme, was handled with precision by all concerned.
While Rachmaninov's Second is hardly a work I ever actively search out, if I were, this would be the kind of performance I should be looking for.
The evening opened with fine performance of Wagner's overture to Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. From the opening, the orchestral sound was firm and resonant; Butterfield took the music at a fairly brisk tempo and excelled in bringing out the inner voices - I heard detail from the horns I had never been aware of previously, for instance.
The ending was noisy and enjoyable, although it would take a man of stronger constitution than mine to happily sit through another four-and-a-half hours of the actual opera afterwards.
All in all, fine close to the season.
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