Rachmaninov without Romantic excess is lovingly dovetailed with some fine British works.

Adelaide Town Hall

24 May, 2014

Although there was much to applaud in conductor Martyn Brabbins' choice of dovetailing this program with fine British works (Walton and Maxwell Davies), it was apparent that the capacity audience had chiefly come, with high expecations, to hear the young Decca signed pianist, Behzod Abduraimov, who had thoroughly impressed local audiences with his traversal of the Tchaikowsky No 1 a couple of years ago. This time the bar had been raised even higher with the choice of that 'finger breaker', the much-loved yet oh so technically difficult third concerto by Sergei Rachmaninov.

No mean slouch himself, Rachmaninov is still regarded by many as a piano virtuoso of the highest calibre, although it was only when Vladimir Horowitz took up the piece around 1920, that the work truly gelled with the concert-going public and its reputation as a pianist destroyer began to grow, reaching its apogee with the circus surrounding David Helfgott and the ensuing Oscar winning film, Shine, which did much to establish a relationship between the concerto and contemporary audiences.

However, with Abduraimov it was more a case of rather demurely making his way to the piano and getting down to the work at hand. And from the opening melodic bars, it was apparent that he had full measure of this long work, exhibiting a spell-binding legato and beautiful singing tone throughout. Here was a pianist full of the joys of youth, its passions and promises. Here was a performance that truly sang. Yet never did he fall into Romantic excess or indulgence. Here was Rachmaninov as he should be played – overt, passionate, heart on the sleeve yet never giving way to sentimentality. And all of this was produced from a boyish young man, small in stature, yet with hands of steel, whilst achieving that rare balance between an almost tactile quality of identification with the work and its intellectual aims.

Here was a performance wherein the orchestra and conductor were more than content to follow its soloist and Brabbins made sure that every detail was balanced with the orchestra always allowing Abduraimov to be heard with great clarity. And it was obvious that the ASO musicians themselves were more than content to provide a musical safety-net. In the end, all emerged to a standing ovation – truly triumphant.

The programming of the Maxwell Davies (an Overture to a projected opera on Francis of Assisi) is the often multi-faceted type of composition we've come to expect from him with a riot of colour, dissonance and even folksong and modal passages. Yet it is the vital side to the work – the bright brass for example, which leads me to calling PMD the Henze of the Hebrides.

Like the other works in this programme, William Walton's first symphony was written at a time of great personal and political stress, and yet it is precisely this stress that holds this symphony together, culminating in one of those great regal fanfares that we have come to identify so strongly with him.