Expressive Force Rages Against The Dying Of The Light

Sydney Morning Herald

Tuesday November 4, 2008

Reviewed by Peter McCallum

ELGAR FESTIVAL: PROGRAM ONE

Vladimir Ashkenazy, Jian Wang

Opera House, October 31

ELGAR'S Cello Concerto and First Symphony share a common feature in that they both end with the idea with which they began. In each piece, jostling energy in the finale is interrupted at a salient moment by memories of earlier music. But there is a crucial difference.

The First Symphony from 1908 ends in a spirit of audacious hope but the Cello Concerto from about a decade later, at the close of World War I, manages to wrest only sadness from the transformation, as memories of the slow movement infiltrate the momentum. Striving towards affirmation is abandoned and the music sinks into melancholy lassitude, with the opening chords returning in a sense of tragic resignation.

Cellist Jian Wang's approach is to rage against the dying of the light. The tone is wonderfully mellow but it is always projected with rhetorical force and expressive intensity, generally avoiding too much inward reflection.

It was superbly rewarding playing, intimately balanced against the Sydney Symphony under Vladimir Ashkenazy (although the orchestra's tendency to play behind the beat prevented perfect synchronisation at moments of handover between soloist and orchestra). Wang's focus allowed him and Ashkenazy to risk broad tempos, drawing out expressive moments without being concerned that the expressive force would somehow be deflated and the large-scale picture lost.

In the First Symphony, after interval, Ashkenazy seemed alive to the danger of deflation through pomposity. Elgar's noble tune at the opening and close, that contributes so much to the work's popularity, and which hovers in the shadows during the slow movement, is also a liability. There is the danger that each return will be like a self-important person entering a room causing all intimate conversation to cease. Ashkenazy's tempos were sensitive and subtle, and the orchestral concentration let a natural balance emerge, bringing out the sophisticated refinement of Elgar's orchestration.

The rewarding aspect of Ashkenazy's leadership (which begins formally next year) is that with him the Sydney Symphony always seems to play at its best. His musical judgments are intelligent and sensitive, and the overriding sense from both orchestra and conductor is one of care in the service of great music.

The Elgar Festival continues throughout November.

© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald

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