Adelaide Symphony Orchestra
Portraits and Variations – Master Series 6
Adelaide Town Hall
By Pearl Tizzie
The sixth in a Master Series by the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, Portraits and Variations, is a musical delight. The Adelaide Town Hall is hosting the monthly Master Series by the ASO, each featuring a number of pieces around a theme. For those more detail inclined, there is a FREE session where the background of the works for the evening are discussed an hour before each concert.
Portraits and Variations features works that span the century by Brahms, Ian Munro, Beethoven, and Elgar. Conducted by Matthew Halls, and featuring Geoffrey Collins on Flute for Ian Munro’s Flute Concerto, the program is electric yet also sensical.
Variations of a theme are a tantalising musical experience. The theme is the chocolate chips in the cake. The theme is a familiar comforting surprise. Everything contributes and builds up to the theme providing the supporting foreplay to give the theme that much more meaning – the cake.
Similarly Portraits are musical paintings with each musical phrase revealing, often quite vividly, another section or shade.
You are welcomed by the warming tones of the double bass and the wind instruments of Brahms’ Haydn Variations. When the strings join, a whole series of depth is added. When the whole orchestra sounds one note in union your immediate attention is commanded and this provides a beautiful juxtaposition to the playful melodies in between.
The change in the first half to the more modern Flute Concerto by Ian Munro is entertainingly covered some information on the pieces by the Conductor. Matthew Halls puts it perfectly ‘It is entirely possible for anyone to sit and enjoy these pieces’.
Elgar’s work is the product of a true dark art master and portraits are slowly and sometimes surprising revealed through his music. Including that of a dog running up and down a hill. The Enigma variations live up to its name, the origin of the theme is mysterious and unknown.
Highlights of the night include the Flute Concerto where the Principle Flautist is beautifully accented by fleeting notes on the cello and sprinkles of snare before the harp makes a delightful entrance.
And the incorporation of the 1989 Walker & Sons pipe organ that makes a seamless appearance in the second half, the organist impressively using hidden mirrors to watch the Conductor behind him.
The pieces are an eclectic mix and are exemplary of how the orchestra blossoms a diversity and depth that is matched by nothing else. At times the whole Town Hall can be silent except for the rich sounds of a solo instrument, to the monstrous movement created when the whole orchestra sounds and any variables in between.
If not only for the beautiful sounds, a Master Series performance is an experience that cannot be utterly described in words and but be experienced in person.
8/10
You can see In Nature’s Realm – Master Series 7 Featuring Elgar, Dvořák, and Mozart, on Friday 29th and Saturday 30th September at the Adelaide Town Hall.
There is also a FREE ‘Classical Conversations’ for ticket holders held one hour prior to each concert where the works presented are discussed.
Tickets are available here:
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