Less Ferocious, More Precise

Sydney Morning Herald

Tuesday November 7, 2006

Reviewed by Peter McCallum

CLASSICAL

AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER

ORCHESTRA

City Recital Hall, November 4

VISITING pianist Polina Leschenko plays with a style which seems to deliberately eschew the barking ferocity of many young virtuosos, and therein lies her artistic individuality.

Her fingerwork had precision in the fiery, note-laden outer movements of Mendelssohn's youthful Concerto in D minor for Violin and Piano, the solo parts of which she shared with Richard Tognetti. In the opening flourishes the sound was deliberately light, producing no more than a brush across the keys. Yet, as the later passages were to show, this was due not to any lack of finger strength but to a musical preference for phrases which flow, float and dissolve without the need to engrave every idea as though wrought with a stone chisel.

At places, such as the hymn-like theme which opens the slow movement, the result was, for my taste, a little underprojected and in this movement, and also in the widely leaping themes of the first, she and Tognetti seemed a little reluctant to think through the long line. Elsewhere, the deliberately veiled, somewhat modernist sound almost implied lack of faith that the 14-year-old Mendelssohn's lush romanticism could speak for itself. Perhaps that is fair enough: no one would claim that this highly precocious score - the second concerto by the teenage Mendelssohn to grace the orchestra's programs this year - is a masterpiece. However, by reviving both works, the orchestra has created interesting recording opportunities for the Mendelssohn bicentenary in 2009.

Before this came Roger Smalley's new work, Birthday Tango, dedicated to orchestra benefactor Barbara Blackman. Smalley has written several works which reference other styles. The distinctiveness of his approach is that this exploration of other music isn't done with any neoclassical coolness or post-modern irony, but rather out of a purely musical exploration, to uncover those aspects he finds interesting. And he does them with great craft. His Birthday Tango is simple in form - outer sections built on acidic biting chords and a smoother, slightly fugal inner section - and its compositional polish sits well with its unpretentious spirit.

After interval came the Presto from Janacek's Suite for Strings, and Dvorak's Serenade in E major for string orchestra, followed by some light-hearted, if somewhat lightweight, encores. It is much to the orchestra's and Richard Tognetti's credit that, at the end of its 30th year, it remains as energised as ever.

© 2006 Sydney Morning Herald

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