Sydney Symphony Orchestra | Mozart & Beethoven
30 August, 2025, Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House, NSW
Pre-concert talks. usually by well-informed amateur musicologists are often well-attended. As a novelty, the talk before Saturday’s concert was given by the SSO’s Associate Principal cellist Simon Cobcroft and there was standing room only!
In a relaxed and informative way, Simon waxed lyrical about the music from a rank and file orchestral member’s point of view. The relationship with conductors at rehearsals is now always amiable – no more famous “Beechamisms” or Klemperer’s, “this nonsense can I tolerate often sometimes but always never!” Simon also gave his insight into composers’ varying talents, contrasting the workmanlike Beethoven and Prokofiev with the gifted Mozart and Shostakovich who could remember their ideas without committing them to paper. He cited other such gifted composers as Mendelssohn, Saint-Saens and, surprisingly, Glazunov. There was hardly time to get to our seats for the first item, Prokofiev’s “Classical Symphony”
I have always warmed to this work-though I feel that “Classical” is a misnomer – light perhaps, full of Russian intonations and rhythms but void of dissonance. He wrote it in 1917 over six months when he was staying in a country house with no piano. It was particularly suited to the effervescent conducting style of Dmitri Matvienko. Dmitri was born in Belarus but studied in Denmark and won first prize at the prestigious Malko competition run by Danish Radio. Since then he has gone from strength to strength leading many orchestras in Europe and the USA apart from his major post at Aarhuis, Denmark.
In 1775 in Vienna, Turkey, with its Ottoman connections, was flavour of the month just as South Korea was in 2012. At this time Mozart wrote his famous Rondo Alla Turca and also the opera “Abduction from the Seraglio”. It still comes as a surprise when a conventional final movement to a violin concerto changes abruptly to the accentuated rhythms and wild scales of a Turkish band. In fact, this final of five concertos all written in that year is the most approachable and mature with excellent interplay between the soloist and orchestra and a sublime slow movement which moves gently from joy to sadness. Soloist Akiko Suwanai swung beautifully with these emotions to give a superb rendering of the piece and making the Turkish element inconspicuous and enjoyable.
Akiko set her career off with first prize in the 1990 Tchaikovsky competition and has appeared as soloist with orchestras across the world, often playing her favourite Bruch Concerto no 1. She also has dedicated herself to recordings of complete sets of Bach and Brahms sonatas. She plays a Guerneri del Gesu violin donated to her by a generous sponsor.
Beethoven wrote his fourth Symphony around the same time as his fourth Piano Concerto which has tended to dwarf it. In fact it is a brilliantly conceived work which seems to rush unimpeded from one theme to another beginning with the headlong arpeggios following the slow introduction. The clockwork rhythm of the second movement blends ideally with the varied tunes while the dynamic Scherzo includes a clever Trio section. The orchestra and conductor gave a memorable rendition and it was easy to forget a horn glitch in the Scherzo.
