Saleem Abboud Ashkar proves a poetic Mendelssohnian but Wigglesworth’s Rachmaninov is more variable.

Hamer Hall, Arts Centre Melbourne

May 2, 2014

This program by the MSO and Mark Wigglesworth gave us musical extremes, from the sheer joy and exuberance of Mendelssohn’s youthful First Piano Concerto, to the grimmest moments of melodrama in Rachmaninov’s heartfelt Second Symphony.

I thought I recognised the piano soloist’s face. I first came across the young Palestinian pianist Saleem Abboud Ashkar about 10 years ago in a video documentary about Barenboim’s West-Eastern Divan Orchestra – an attempt through music to improve relations between Arabs and Israelis. In it, he spoke gently and intelligently about his hopes for the future, and his desire that music bring about a positive change.

Those qualities of thoughtfulness and intelligence were mostly evident in his performance of the Mendelssohn Concerto, but his approach was more rhythmic than lyrical, sometimes missing the opportunities for moments of repose in the first movement. Unfortunately, the piano sounded both tinny and out of tune from the get go.

As in his Violin Concerto, Mendelssohn connects the first and second movement of this Piano Concerto without a break, and Ashkar gave an intimate, understated rendition of this poetic, almost Chopinesque music. The brisk finale requires a feather-light touch which Ashkar fortunately has, though sometimes too light and in danger of being swamped by the light accompaniment. His sound reminded me of Isador Goodman from a generation or two back.

The concert had opened with Swedish composer Albert Schnelzer’s A Freak in Burbank, inspired by the unlikely combination of Haydn and film director Tim Burton. Schnelzer was drawn to the quirky personality of both characters, though to me, the ‘Haydn’ aspect was most apparent in the choice of a small orchestra than anything else. The music was an episodic fantasy, most reminiscent of the sound-world of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice and of Walton’s Symphony No 1 – at times too much so. A film score without the pictures.

Rachmaninov’s massive Second Symphony, now traditionally played uncut and with first movement repeat is a big undertaking, in which you somehow have to be able to see the forest for the trees. Mark Wigglesworth seems to have a good technique – he looks like a good conductor, but there were too many places where things just weren’t together. After the introduction, the first tune was at a rather desultory tempo that gave the impression that we would be in for a very long night! That’s sort of alright in its gloomy way, but the development got bogged down – it needed more urgency and sense of pulse.

Wigglesworth set at a nice bouncy tempo for the scherzo second movement, with a slow reflective second subject, but the quasi-military interlude in the brass needed more jazzy inflection, and as in the first movement, the climaxes in this hall just sounded ugly rather than sonorous.

The highlight of the night was the gorgeous slow movement, with a lovely solo from clarinettist David Thomas. There was a particularly melting moment when the bassoon first joins the clarinet solo in a counter melody. It was perfectly judged. The strings really blossomed into the main tune, but the speeding up into the big climax where the brakes were applied very heavily, sounded unconvincing and corny, like a sort of cod romanticism. The coda of this movement though was really touching – Wigglesworth really opened it up dynamically and the broadening of tempo here seemed to work much better.

The Finale was at a very measured tempo with a strange speed up into the second tune, which made no sense, to me at least. This piece is so long that there needs to be a feeling of inevitability and inexorability about it, like a long journey, and it was this seemingly wilful pulling around of the tempo that unfortunately threatened its structure. I think Tadaaki Otaka’s performance of it nearly 4 years ago was better- slow and steady wins the race, and better still, it’s available on ABC Classics.