Pictures at An Exhibition at the Sydney Opera House

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Thu 12 Nov 2015 - Mon 16 Nov 2015

The brochure promotes this concert as "a program that is rich in imagery", which is why although the title "Pictures at an Exhibition" is the title of Mussorgsky's work with which the program closes, it is actually a fitting title to encompass the concert as a whole.

The concept is pleasingly apt, resulting in a wonderfully varied and absorbing array of vignettes that take the listener through the auditory equivalent of a stroll through an eclectic collector's fine arts gallery.

The music started with a bracing brass fanfare, then moved through to the sweeping splendour of Saint-Saens' piano concerto. This was followed by the eerie bird-call filled Shaft of Light performance, and was completed with a whisk through Mussorgksy's Pictures at an Exhibition, a work literally created by Mussorgsky in response to attending an exhibition by Victor Hartmann, and taken to its final glorious heights by Ravel's orchestration.

We attended the first night of this concert on Wednesday 11 November 2015, which was a 6.30pm session. We were seated in the second row from the front, so close we could see every nervous tic and expression on Vadym's face as he performed the Saint-Saens.



It started with a 3 minute brass fanfare by Paul Dukas, followed by the ever-popular Piano Concerto No 2 in G minor by Camille Saint-Saens, performed by Vadim Kholodenko, a young Ukrainian pianist of impressive talent. I particularly loved his rendition of Saint-Saens' allegretto scherzando. He played this with an incredibly zesty sense of playfulness and delight, which was impossible to watch without being charmed.



Following the interval, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra performed Alan Holley's new Oboe Concerto, A Shaft of Light, which is its premiere performance, performed by the SSO's Associate Principal oboist, Shafali Prior. While not generally that keen on contemporary music (my general view is that these concerts slot a contemporary work in the middle of the program so you have no choice but to suffer through it in order to hear the works you actually want to see) or oboe works, I could not help but be impressed by her skill in performing this clearly very complex work, while also being unusually moved by the auditory tapestry that Alan Holley wove with this work.



This was followed by Mussorgsky's Pictures of an Exhibition as orchestrated by Maurice Ravel.

This was a lovely selection of orchestral pieces performed in a wonderfully exuberant yet controlled way. It took the audience through a range of emotions - big, ponderous heavy feelings associated with oxen and catacombs, the merriment of the quick light dancing feet of children and the skittering ballet of the unhatched chicks, followed by the irritation of French women arguing at the marketplace and the fear of Baba Yaga - a witch who lives in a hut mounted on hen's legs and devours children.

The final chords reverberated around the hall with the mighty sound of an orchestra playing at full bore, and was met with thunderous applause seconds after its conclusion. There seemed to be a lot of school students in the hall that day, and most of them were on their feet applauding madly at this point. While the conductor went through each soloist to give them their individual dues in this applause, the stamping and applauding reached rock star proportions. While I don't doubt that the performances these individuals gave were of a stellar magnitude worthy of such praise, it's generally not the kind of reception I've tended to see given at classical concerts before. I posit that maybe some of the school students in the audience were music students whose teachers were in the orchestra that day doing the solos - I might be wrong, but whatever the case, it was a very satisfying and joy-filled round of final applause for all. And it must be very exciting to know somebody personally performing something so brilliant.

This was one of those works which reminds me that human collaboration can result in something that verges on the sublime. I cannot put into words how satisfying it was to see this concert performance.

The remaining performances are between 11 November 2015 and 16 November 2015, remaining tickets available from the Opera House website.

If you are unable to attend but this review has piqued your interest in hearing the work, the concert will also be broadcast live on 92.9 Classic FM on Sunday 15 November 2015 at 1pm.

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#november
!date 12/11/2015 -- 16/11/2015
%wnsydney