Intimate Letters (Mozart, Smetana, Janacek)
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The ACO in collaboration with Bell Shakespeare and led by Guest Director & Violin, Gordon Nikolic;
Llewellyn Hall, Saturday August 23
Like the breeze filling a grove of young, supple trees, Mozart's Divertimento in F major, K.138 came to life in the hands of the Australian Chamber Orchestra. The Allegro lifted on the wings of lithe bowing, the cellos sounding particularly spectacular in unified golden tone. Lovely suspensions in the upper strings layered over the ascending and descending motif in the violas, cellos and bass created a perfectly contrasting mood in the Andante, and the Presto lifted the energy again like a strengthening wind in the sails. This was the most exquisite tribute to Mozart I have heard in a long while.
Smetana's String Quartet No. 1 in E minor, arranged for string orchestra translated well into a work for larger ensemble. Each of the four movements was interspersed with excerpts from Smetana's letters, describing his intention in the Quartet of tracing the course of his life in sound.
At the heart of the work is the voice of the viola, and Christopher Moore's interpretation of the raw, passionate energy of this opening subject in the first movement almost physically wrenches the listener forward to reach out and accompany the composer through this brilliant work. As Smetana wrote, the work is full of melodic and rhythmic material that evokes different memories: the galloping and frenzy of the battlefield; his intense nationalistic fervour and his quest as a Czech "to find our own characteristic music".
The opening cello solo met by the despairing sighs of the upper strings in the Largo sostenuto third movement strikes to the essence of the composer's misery. He had descended into profound deafness after experiencing tortuous high-pitched screechings in his head that were inescapable. His courage returns with the final Vivace and a lively completion of the work.
Ella Scott Lynch and Marshall Napier from the Bell Shakespeare Company played the parts of the elderly Janacek and his young muse, Kamila Stosslova, reading from the letters that documented their relationship in between movements of the String Quartet No.2 (adapted for string orchestra by Timo-Veikko Valve). The music is truly haunting - opening doors and windows in the imagination through skilful use of harmonics. The different textures evoke sensations of Janacek's physical and metaphysical yearnings.
On the whole this was a successful adaptation, with some lovely writing integrating the quartet soloists with the ensemble, but I did feel that the intention of the composer was to use the intensely intimate power of the traditional string quartet to convey his private and passionate longings. At least one movement played just by the quartet might have better preserved this ideal, leading into a magnification of the ideas with the ensemble playing in the other movements. That said, the program provided a beautifully balanced arc from Mozart's youthful zest to Janacek's mature passion.