Glittering Fröst: Mozart, Hillborg, Brahms, Copland, Ravel.
City Recital Hall, Angel Place
Tuesday, May 24

Martin Fröst’s got moves; he should be crowned Scandinavia’s Lord of the Dance. The virtuoso clarinettist’s performance of Peacock Tales, a work composed for him in 2003 by fellow Swede Anders Hillborg, incorporates an eerie mask, sinuous twists and twirls, an impressive moonwalk and theatrical lighting – giving an already intensely atmospheric piece a touch of razzle-dazzle. He is a naturally gestural player who launches himself into this music body and soul, striking angular poses and voguing – yes, voguing – with clarinet in hand. A commanding sweep of his instrument was all it took to unleash cascades of massed string dissonance from the ACO.

All this without compromising his astonishing control of relentless melodic lines (sustained with circular breathing), his refined, characterful tone and the mastery of a range of extended techniques at times giving the impression of a second soloist shadowing his every note.

I find some Australian Chamber Orchestra devotees a little tepid, or perhaps hesitant, when it comes to the grating modernist works that inevitably appear on the programs. In one of Alex Ross’ Sydney presentations of The Rest is Noise, music...