★★★★☆ Sublime performances from WASO’s Wagnerian dream team.

Perth Concert Hall
November 26, 2016

Asher Fisch’s three years as principal conductor with the WA Symphony Orchestra seems to have been building – via a series of Beethoven and Brahms festivals – towards a Wagnerian goal. The orchestra’s recent international tour included an all-Wagner programme in Abu Dhabi and the 2017 season has two programmes dedicated to Wagner with concert performances of Tristan und Isolde planned for 2018. The concert on the weekend featured what was billed as the Wagnerian dream team: Heldentenor Stuart Skelton and conductor Asher Fisch in a programme of Wagner opera excerpts.

So what does Asher Fisch and WASO’s version of Wagner sound like? On Friday 26, WASO was sounding the most Germanic I’ve heard with vibrato-less woodwind embedded in the strings and warmed by a thick glossy brass sound. There was also – somewhat surprisingly – a sense of restraint, of lingering until the last moment so that when the swells of volume finally arrived they were simply sublime. And thirdly, Fisch created a smooth roundedness through his restful contouring and carefully placed phrase ends.

With these...