Sydney Symphony Orchestra | Alexander Melnikov performs Shostakovich

June 23, 2024, Sydney Opera House

PROGRAM

SHOSTAKOVICH
Festive Overture
Piano Concerto No.1
R STRAUSS
Don Juan
Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks

ARTISTS

GIORDANO BELLINCAMPI conductor
ALEXANDER MELNIKOV piano
DAVID ELTON trumpet

The programme for this concert was interesting in that it featured two composers who suffered struggles with political authority. Shostakovich’s problems with Stalin are probably better known but Richard Strauss was ordered not to have his works advertised with Jewish artists and after the war was quite unfairly accused of being a Nazi sympathiser.

Shostakovich’s Festive Overture was composed originally for the 39th anniversary of the Russian Revolution in 1947 but already the communist Politburo was rearing its ugly head and the work was not played until seven years later when a revised version opened that year’s Bolshoi Ballet programme, just after Stalin’s death. The work is short, happy and effervescent and perhaps expresses a sense of relief.

It includes quotes from Shostakovich’s Children’s Suite, written for his daughter Galena, whereas this first work was ‘light’, his Piano Concerto no 1 could be aptly described as zany, as well as a parody of conventional musical styles. It is in fact a concerto for piano, trumpet and strings Dimitri is always fond of making references to other composers but here he excels himself. A frantic first movement starts with a left hand cadenza and progresses to a rhapsodic theme reminiscent of Rachmaninov while later shades of Beethoven and Mozart are detectable. The Lento is sad and introspective but then follows is a reckless, frantic gavotte with a sudden change of tempo to a roaring tune which has its roots in Al Jolson’s California Here We Come!  Throughout, the pianist is very busy while the trumpeter has fanfares and accompaniments as well as its own subjects.

Alexander Melnikov is Moscow trained, has won many competitions and counts the inimitable Sviatoslav Richter among his mentors. He is noted for his unusual programming featuring pre-baroque works as well as lesser-known Russian composers. His playing was dynamic and flawless. David Elton was principal trumpet of the Perth and Adelaide Symphony Orchestras before a four year stint with the London Symphony under Sir Simon Rattle. He is now principal for the SSO and a keen educator. The importance of his role in the Concerto can not be over-emphasised and he clearly enjoyed himself.

Richard Strauss’ father, a horn player hated Wagner’s music and this rubbed off on his prodigious son until he heard his music live at Bayreuth and fell in love with it. From then on, his composition tended to focus on opera, lieder and above all the tone-poem of which he became the main exponent – he took his tendency further by marrying a soprano.  The story of Don Juan (or Don Giovanni) is well-known although Strauss had read the poem by Lenau which paints him as a sad figure disenchanted by his search for eternal love, rather than a soulless Lothario. The composer uses the technique of representing the hero by a specific instrument, in this case a horn. The music reaches a crescendo but then, unlike Mozart’s version, ends with calm resignation.

Till Eulenspiegel (owl-mirror) was a legendary practical joker but one with evil intent. His mischievous side is represented by a descending sequence mostly on the clarinet while a drum-roll signals his death sentence and a loud tutti represents his hanging. The representation of the story gives rise to superb music.

Both of these pieces were well received and brilliantly executed by a superb orchestra under conductor Giordano Bellincampo who is certainly well-travelled having been born in Italy and educated in Denmark while he now directs the Auckland Philharmonia.