Conducted by Alan
Cook
Soloist: Eloise
Fisher, Clarinet
The Q, Queanbeyan
Sunday 13 October
Reviewed by Len Power
The National Capital Orchestra presented a very enjoyable
program of four works that took us from modern day Australia to Europe and
Russia of the 18th and 19th centuries.
Conductor, Alan Cook, has enjoyed a busy international
career and is currently Music Director of ‘Melbourne Chamber Choir’ and
Artistic Director of ‘More Than Opera’.
The program commenced with ‘Orchestral Equations’ by
Melbourne-based composer May Lyon whose music explores themes from deep human
emotions, history and mythology, through to mathematical concepts. In three movements, ‘Orchestral Equations’ is
described as a symphonic poem loosely based on the solving of a 17th
century mathematical riddle.
The first
movement gave a fine sense of working on and edging towards a solution but
never quite getting there. The slower
second movement had a grandeur indicating the slow passing of time and progress
over the centuries until the third movement where the music indicated the
mathematical solution had been found. It
was accessible, evocative music and it was played well by the orchestra. Composer, May Lyon, was in the audience and
took a bow at the end of the performance.
 |
| May Lyon and Alan Cook |
Eloise Fisher then joined the orchestra to play solo
clarinet for Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto in A.
She is the winner of prizes from numerous prestigious competitions in
Beijing, London and Paris. She received
her Doctorate in Musical Arts from The Juilliard School in New York and is on
staff at the ANU.
 |
| Eloise Fisher and Alan Cook |
The Clarinet Concerto is well-known and often heard on
concert stages. The spirited first
movement was well-played by soloist and orchestra but it was the second
movement where the combination of soloist and orchestra was most
memorable. The third movement was also
very well played.
After interval, the program continued with two works by
Russian composers. The Antar Symphony by
Rimsky-Korsakov, composed in 1897, is an atmospheric work set in Arabia and
based on a story from the collection ‘The Fantastic Journeys of Baron Brambeus
by Osip Senkovsky. It’s a colourful work
full of the mystery and atmosphere of the Middle East and the orchestra gave it
a very fine performance.
 |
| National Capital Orchestra |
The final work, Borodin’s Polovtsian Dances was first
performed in 1890. Written for the opera
‘Prince Igor’, this evocative work is a staple of the concert stage. Passages of the work have also become very
familiar since the early 1950s when they were used as a basis for songs in the
successful Broadway musical, ‘Kismet’.
The orchestra played the work very well, bringing out the passion and
drama of the music very nicely. It was a
great finale to a very pleasant afternoon concert
Photos by Peter Hislop
Len Power’s reviews
are also broadcast on the Artsound FM 92.7 ‘In the Foyer’ program on Mondays
and Wednesdays at 3.30pm.