Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House
November 27, 2018

With his Brahms Symphony cycle out of the way, Daniel Barenboim‘s third and final concert in Sydney with the Staatskapelle Berlin was a chance to explore some different repertoire, presenting the two movements of Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony and Beethoven’s Symphony No 3, Eroica.

Daniel Barenboim and the Staatskapelle Berlin at the Sydney Opera House. Photo © Peter Adamik

With a smaller orchestra (only six double basses, instead of the eight for the Brahms), in the Schubert we heard a more delicate Staatskapelle, Barenboim coaxing the first movement’s tenebrous opening out of a silent concert hall, the oboe solo silky smooth. The title page of Schubert’s Unfinished dates it at 1822, over 50 years before Brahms’s First Symphony had its premiere, and Barenboim highlighted both the work’s Classical elegance and its shadowy mystery, the conductor daringly bringing the lower strings down right to the very edge of silence. From the first movement’s sombre final chords, the Andante was delicate and sunny, clarinet weaving over strings and Barenboim splashing little accents that rippled across the strings. The more turbulent passages were insistent...