Relationship Gets Off To A Rocky Start

Sydney Morning Herald

Monday September 3, 2007

Reviewed by Harriet Cunningham

AUSTRALIAN BRANDENBURG ORCHESTRA

City Recital Hall, August 31

It is rare for an ensemble of the calibre of the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra to go completely off the rails, but it happened on Friday night. Someone missed an entry, someone else tried to jump in, and it ended up in an unintentionally discordant canon. The rival factions persisted for what seemed like hours but was probably only 16 bars, until finally artistic director Paul Dyer banged out a few decisive cadences and harmony was restored. How did this happen? Perhaps a key factor was the gulf between the ensemble and its guest director, violinist Hiro Kurosaki.

Kurosaki is a Japanese-born, Viennese-raised, Spanish-based whiz-kid who heads up the French period orchestra, Les Arts Florissants. His tempi were fast, his tone bright and his articulation dramatic.

At all times Kurosaki was a generous ensemble member and his partnership with concertmaster Lucinda Moon was particularly satisfying, in spite of their markedly different techniques. As a director, however, he did not seem to give the same emphatic lead that the ensemble are used to receiving from harpsichordist Paul Dyer.

International guests are a key part of the Brandenburg's strategy to developing historic performance practice in Australia, so Kurosaki's visit is important, even if the initial outing was rocky. It will be interesting to see how the relationship develops over the coming 12-concert tour. This concert is repeated on September 4, 5, 7 and 8 at 7pm then tours to Brisbane, Darwin, Perth and Adelaide.

© 2007 Sydney Morning Herald

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