Review: Australian Chamber Orchestra — River at Perth Concert Hall

Australian Chamber Orchestra — River at Perth Concert Hall
Friday, February 16, 2024

Best known as the ACO, the Australian Chamber Orchestra has been performing up to six concerts a year in Perth for nigh on four decades. Their latest show, River, a collaboration with Australian filmmaker Jennifer Peedom, was presented at the Perth Concert Hall (PCH) last Friday night. It was both a part of the ACO’s annual subscription series and a feature of Perth Festival’s fine music program. Little wonder the auditorium was packed to the ceiling beams. As well as the dedicated subscribers, the Perth gliterratis were out in force.

Formed in 1975 by cellist John Painter, Richard Tognetti has been the ACO’s Artistic Director since 1990. The Sydney-based ensemble takes its ‘A’ seriously, hence its high profile in Perth. That’s admirable for an organisation that doesn’t receive any direct financial support from the WA government, though it does from Wesfarmers and a number of WA-based philanthropists.

The ACO first performed in the PCH in 1981. Its concerts have been well attended ever since. Many regulars have been seated comfortably in the PCH’s plush red seats for upwards of thirty years. Internationally renowned after their regular performances in London, Vienna, New York and Washington, it’s heartening to think that, through the ACO, the PCH sits in the esteemed company of Wigmore Hall, the Wiener Musikverein, the Lincoln Centre, Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Centre.

River is the ACO’s second collaboration with Peedom. Thematically, it follows directly on from Mountain, their first, which had its world premiere at the Sydney Opera House in 2017.

Although developed in 2020, thanks to COVID, this orchestral film is only now having its premiere concert season. A powerful work, it is in part a celebration of the vitality of nature, in part an elegy for a drastically changing planet, and in part an ode to the endless cycle of regeneration and renewal.

Nature will persevere, but the elephant in the auditorium is whether humankind will have much of a place in it. The two most chilling lines in Willem Dafoe’s narration were:

Beyond our ability to comprehend but within our capacity to destroy.

and

One country’s affluence is another’s effluence.

These powerful messages and the sensational images were reinforced by a magnificent, diverse score developed by Tognetti—a mix of classical masterpieces and new compositions. The new works were composed principally by Tognetti, some by Piers Burbrook de Vere, and some by Tognetti working in collaboration with de Vere and legendary composer, didgeridoo player and singer William Barton.

Collaboration and the ACO go hand in hand. No two of their concerts are quite the same. Guest artists feature in every year’s program and the shape of the orchestra is constantly changing as extra players are brought in to embellish the sound.

As well as special guest Barton on vocals and didge, the ensemble for River included percussionist Nicholas Meredith (kit and incidentals) and timpanist Brian Nixon, bringing the full contingent to sixteen players. The three guests gave the music a contemporary kick, a shift that was embellished by Tognetti occasionally putting aside his 1740s del Gesù violin to take up a metal-framed electric one, principle violin Satu Vänskä unexpectedly taking to the microphone to unleash her superb singing voice, and the entire orchestra breaking their acoustic mould and amping up. It was a different side of the ACO, showing them to be even more funky than their audience realised.

The pinnacle of this sound was the electric pizzicato ostinato to Tognetti’s Downside of Dams and Vänskä’s accompanying vocal. If they ever needed a sideline, they could easily cross over into electronic dance music.

The summit of the show, though, was the finale: the Tognetti/Barton How We Feel, and especially Barton’s extraordinary, deeply emotional vocal. In rehearsal, he unleashed a ten-minute solo of it that had the entire gathering close to tears. In performance, you could feel the fingers feathering down your spine. Subtitled ‘after Gustav Mahler’ the piece segued effortlessly into Tognetti’s arrangement of the third, adagio movement of Mahler’s fourth symphony, a sublime point on which to close the show.

The other featured classical composers included Vivaldi, Bach, Sibelius and Ravel, while the contemporary side was embellished further by the English progressives Radiohead’s Harry Patch (In Memory Of). Under Tognetti’s virtuoso guidance, the score melded seamlessly.

Still, it was at times difficult for the audience to meld in their minds the dual focus of orchestra and film. It was not easy to concentrate on both equally—as one took your attention, the other faded. Some regular subscribers, not realising they were coming to a twinned show and expecting only music, were confused. Some even closed their eyes so they could better listen.

This was further exacerbated at the Perth performance as, due to a technical glitch, the two projectors were not colour coordinated, leaving the right half of the screen with an off-putting lemon tint. Still, had the production manager not interrupted the performance to apologise for a problem she could not correct, many would have thought it was an intentional effect, even though it did disrupt the sweep of the spectacular imagery.

On the other hand, performing before a giant screen cast the show in an eerie glow. The golden sheen on the musicians faces gave them an added gravitas—especially for those who could see him, William Barton. Similarly, principal bass Maxime Bibeau and the headstock of his instrument looked formidable when silhouetted against a silver screen.

All up it was the perfect concert to include in the Perth Festival program—a step left of what was expected, an innovative collaboration across artforms, and a momentous movement across musical genres. In a word, inspired.

For something completely different again, the ACO will be back in Perth in March for a program of Beethoven piano concertos. Subscription is a good option.

IAN LILBURNE

Photos by Nic Walker