The Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra offer a daring start to the season.

Federation Concert Hall
March 6, 2015

When you have an orchestra twice the size of normal, performing works by Wagner and Mahler, you know you’re in for a big night. Teaming up with musicians from the Australian National Academy of Music, the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of Marko Letonja, launched its 2015 season with a bang.

Australian composer James Ledger’s The Madness and Death of King Ludwig was a daring start to the concert. The contemporary work drew directly from Wagner’s Ring Cycle after its first climax, although, like Wagner, the climax didn’t really feel like it had resolved at all. Ledger hinted at a major chord toward the conclusion, but the satisfaction was stolen from us as he clouded it with tension. The piece ended as enigmatically as it began.

Wagner’s ‘Siegfried’s Rhine Journey’ from Götterdämmerung picked up where the previous piece left off, with a focus on the lower ends of the orchestra. Marko Letonja conducted a smooth Wagner, and the ludicrously long crescendos were well approached. In the middle of the piece, the French horn ran off stage to perform the solo line which calls to the audience from a distance. She rushed back on after, and while it was necessary and well-executed in a musical sense, it was visually distracting.  

Wagner’s music is best heard live – and ‘Ride of the Valkyries’ from Die Walküre is certainly no exception. Between the triangles, cymbals, and brass, the violins sounded tender by comparison. But the combined efforts of each section resulted in a weighty and downright loud performance – exactly how it should have been.

After an interval break, mezzo-soprano Michelle DeYoung took to the stage in a glittering and dark pink dress. Wild blonde hair and seductively red lips, DeYoung was every bit as womanly in her performance as she was in appearance. Her impassioned hand gestures and powerful timbre contributed to a theatrical presentation of Mahler’s The Song of the Earth. She was paired with tenor Simon O’Neill – a clever match. The brightness of O’Neill’s voice and his constant projection of delight did a good job of softening DeYoung’s often dominant presence. O’Neill had in fact performed this song cycle before, with the Met Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. Of course, the Federation Concert Hall is a far more modest venue, but this Mahler was a treat regardless.

The concert’s finale, Der Abschied (The Farewell), was the real showstopper. Winds and harp worked together to weave an air of mystery. Often, DeYoung would sing her emotionally charged melody with minimal orchestral support, leaving her exposed and the audience enraptured. The Song of the Earth was a magical homage to the physical world – a work so important for us to consider today.