Home Pride
It is outings to the SSO like last evening's that makes me reevaluate and believe in the reviews that have placed our local musicians as "a world-class orchestra" that "ranks among the world's best". While lacking in the pedigree and history of a Vienna or Berlin Philharmonic, the SSO has indeed come a long way and come of age. Under the baton of Nicholas Cleobury last evening, the SSO was in fine form as it closed the evening with Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition.
While not discounting the quality of the early pictures, it was in the last two pictures that the SSO showed its mettle. Cleobury released the orchestra into a maelstrom of horror and terror in the "demonic ride" of Babi-yaga's Hut on Chicken's Legs as the explosive orchestral chords which punctuated the opening set the catalyst into motion. Urgent strings and blaring brass and insistent percussion drove home the point that this was no leisurely cruise but a roller-coaster, but a joy ride none the less.
The Great Gate of Kiev is positioned to close the piece and is usually the highlight of the entire evening. However, while normally Babi-Yaga would serve as a teaser leading up to the feature, what the SSO had achieved with the former set a standard so high that the Great Gate was diminished in scale and opened rather hesitantly and tentatively. However, Cleobury managed to build up the momentum and it was a awe-inspiring picture painted with the monolith silhouetted against the sun, imposing and resplendent.
Before the intermission, Wagner's Act 3 Prelude from Tristan und Isolde and Berg's Violin Concerto with soloist Pierre Amoyal only served to send me into narcoleptic escape with their dissonant dreamscapes. Pity, for it was a beautiful and legendary instrument that Amoyal was playing on - "one of the world's most celebrated violins, the Kochansky Stradivarius from 1717 which was miraculously recovered in Italy in 1991 after its theft in 1987". I can only dream of what an experience it would be if the instrument had been better served by a more befitting work.
On a sidenote, this is breathtaking! Skip to 05:59 (or 3:50 counting down)...
While not discounting the quality of the early pictures, it was in the last two pictures that the SSO showed its mettle. Cleobury released the orchestra into a maelstrom of horror and terror in the "demonic ride" of Babi-yaga's Hut on Chicken's Legs as the explosive orchestral chords which punctuated the opening set the catalyst into motion. Urgent strings and blaring brass and insistent percussion drove home the point that this was no leisurely cruise but a roller-coaster, but a joy ride none the less.
The Great Gate of Kiev is positioned to close the piece and is usually the highlight of the entire evening. However, while normally Babi-Yaga would serve as a teaser leading up to the feature, what the SSO had achieved with the former set a standard so high that the Great Gate was diminished in scale and opened rather hesitantly and tentatively. However, Cleobury managed to build up the momentum and it was a awe-inspiring picture painted with the monolith silhouetted against the sun, imposing and resplendent.
Before the intermission, Wagner's Act 3 Prelude from Tristan und Isolde and Berg's Violin Concerto with soloist Pierre Amoyal only served to send me into narcoleptic escape with their dissonant dreamscapes. Pity, for it was a beautiful and legendary instrument that Amoyal was playing on - "one of the world's most celebrated violins, the Kochansky Stradivarius from 1717 which was miraculously recovered in Italy in 1991 after its theft in 1987". I can only dream of what an experience it would be if the instrument had been better served by a more befitting work.
On a sidenote, this is breathtaking! Skip to 05:59 (or 3:50 counting down)...
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