Beyond the wait

After a quick dinner, the Llewellyn audience for the Australian Youth Orchestra’s second concert was unexpectedly reduced, although there were no doubt plenty of virtual listeners to the ABC FM live broadcast. This concert was again orchestral, this time with just three works, but consistently modern and exploratory.

The Alexander Orchestra opened with a work by the AYO Music Camp resident composer, Iain Grandage’s Out of time (2004). This was joyous and full with immense sound. Iain was interviewed after the work and spoke of it as filmic and “celebrating the music of the orchestra”. I particularly liked his intention to “write things that performers like playing”. This was clearly like that. Big and satisfying.

The Nelson Cooke Chamber Orchestra followed with a modern Swedish piece, Anders Eliasson’s Ein schneller blick … ein kurzes auscheinen (= A quick glimpse … a brief appearance, 2003). This work was meditative and slow and of a limited tonal palette. I liked the livelier final movement with cellos and basses playing off each other in contrary motion and otherwise.

The final work was the one that most interested me in this session. The Bishop Orchestra performed Shostakovitch’s Symphony no. 10 (1953). On the outside, I’d not expect to like this. It’s brooding, it’s steady and even with quaver melodies, it tells stories with regularity and tone. I wondered if this was a modern romanticism. It’s also long, lasting a full hour, but this was an hour that I hardly noticed passing. That was a hint to me. This is like Russian literature: huge with dense complexity and epic breadth that speaks deceptively easily of the human condition: like Tolstoy or Dostoievsky. It’s anchored in the time after Stalin’s death and follows Shostakovich’s denunciation and withdrawal from symphonic composition. The themes are large and the concerns and emotions are deep. People who live in the sun don’t write music like this. Great composition performed with commitment and ardour.

So ended a long but invigourating pair of concerts. It speaks well for the Camp and its attendees. The music was an intelligent and broadminded view of music of the last century with one baroque teaser. The playing was wonderfully capable, always presented seriously and with considerable verve. The hammering feet of applause from these young musicians was full of youthful enthusiasm and involvement. This was a lengthy and satisfying first outing and I’m looking forward to much more over the coming week.

The Alexander Orchestra performed Iain Grandage’s Out of time with William Conway conducting. Nelson Cooke Chamber Orchestra played Anders Eliasson’s Ein schneller blick … ein kurzes auscheinen (= A quick glimpse … a brief appearance) with director Mats Zetterqvist. The Bishop Orchestra ended the concert with Shostakovitch’s Symphony no. 10 conducted by Christopher Seaman.