★★★★★ Compelling programme proves the Finn is, as promised, a “triple threat”.

Sydney Opera House, Concert Hall
September 20, 2015

I have often wondered at the chiseled clarity of Finnish pianist Olli Mustonen’s fingerwork on disc. Now, having seen him play, I can understand it. He literally pounces on individual notes on the keyboard, even in fast scale passages, driven by a manic energy that is nevertheless strictly focused. (Only twice in this entire concert did he pounce and produce a little extra something that the composer may not have recognised.) He is indeed a formidable musician and, as we saw in this compelling programme, a “triple threat”.

The first half of the concert consisted of two works for piano and strings. Bach’s D Major Concerto was not written for a Steinway, of course. Despite his non-romantic, marcato playing, Mustonen took a modernist approach, molding phrases in great detail and even introducing a crescendo and diminuendo within a single phrase. Needless to say, the responsive ACO musicians were with him all the way. Even so, the result did seem slightly fiddly in the outer movements, while the Adagio movement could have benefited from a more consistent legato. Hindemith’s ballet score The Four Temperaments (choreographed by Balanchine) was better suited to Mustonen’s close scrutiny. This beguiling theme and variations is one of the pianist’s specialties – he has recorded it – and is also, to my mind, the finest of the 20th-century German composer’s concertante works for piano. This is music that switches moods on a dime – a sweet waltz one minute, an abrasive pronouncement the next – expressed in pristine neoclassical textures. The piano part is deceptively difficult, but Mustonen literally tossed it off while giving the orchestral players clear and pointed cues. One of the most enjoyable variations teamed the piano with a solo string quartet (and later quintet, with double bass added), a passage that showed off the sensitivity of the ACO’s section leaders.

The second half of the concert began with a world premiere: the orchestral version of Mustonen’s own Cello Sonata. Harmonically, the music was not far removed from Hindemith. In four movements, the sonata similarly features alternating moods, and is not without its virtuoso element – as in the taxing moto perpetuo third movement, Precipitato. The solo cello, played with passionate vitality by Valve, remains the driving force throughout, with the orchestra supporting – contextualising, if you like – rather than contrasting with the soloist. I do not know the original composition, championed by Steven Isserlis and others (although I think it has been recorded), but in this version Mustonen’s evocative orchestration is a definite asset. Harp, bass clarinet, contrabassoon and particularly percussion are all employed with considerable subtlety.

Finally, without a conductor, the strings of the ACO played Valve’s arrangement of Shostakovich’s String Quartet No 9. Several of this composer’s quartets have been expanded for larger forces over the decades, mostly to good effect. Valve’s reworking of the Ninth Quartet is one of the best. He instinctively knows when to fill out the texture and when to pare it back to the solo quartet: very powerfully done in the fierce pizzicato interruptions of the adagio, to take just one example. The performance was immaculate: shading, balance and sonority were all first class, deeply probing Shostakovich’s melancholy, troubled world. A fitting end to a very special concert.

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