Above: Wind players perform Louise Farrenc’s ‘Nonet in E flat major, Op.38’ at the 2023 concert at the David Li Sound Gallery, Monash University. Photo credit: Hikari Photography.
Two reasons (out of many) to be grateful for the presence of Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra in our local live and recorded music scene are made as crystal clear as their interpretations with the release this month of Farrenc & Eberl, the orchestra’s fifth album.
Firstly, this group of Historically Informed Performance (HIP) experts, period instrument artists, researchers and mentors makes sure to bring us seldom-performed works by composers from their focus eras. These are works by composers other than those usually heard in concert programmes such as Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, for example, even though the orchestra has delivered enlightening and new interpretations of all these greats as well.
Also, we are thankful that recordings released have been predominantly from concerts recorded live on tour, with a cast of local and overseas HIP players. In this way the electricity of the events in which unearthed works were heard shifts effectively to exciting first-time recordings in Australia.
The above is true for this orchestra’s latest recording. Two pivotal works, including a landmark, large-scale chamber work written through 1849 and from a female composer unites strings and winds to begin the recording. The construction and appeal of this work rewarded the composer with equal pay at the Paris Conservatoire as her male colleagues.
The Nonet in E flat major Op.33 by Louise Farrenc is followed in the album order by an earlier symphonic work, the Symphony in E flat major Op.33 by Anton Eberl. This composition consolidates the evolution of accessible taste, gesture, drama and structure for the form. Eberl received high praise from critics of the day when his symphony was played beside Beethoven’s atypical and challenging ‘Eroica’ in 1805.
To have these popular works with such exciting history paired on the same recording is an illuminating choice for this recording.
Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra performs Farrenc’s ‘Nonet in E flat major, Op.38’ at the David Li Sound Gallery, Monash University. Photo credit: Hikari Photography.
As well as bringing these talents, successful in their own time, to us, Australian Classical & Romantic Orchestra’s programming provides us with convincing works, so capably chiselled that they are instantly appealing.
The chance to hear a nonet (string quartet and wind quintet) is one for us to cherish, especially a foray into the non-piano included genre by pianist Louise Farrenc. Also important is both composers overcoming obstacles and the delicate nature of exposure through public premiere in Europe around two centuries ago
Eberl’s thirty minute long, four movement symphony features concise construction and (as with the Farrenc work) is so rich in melodic and gestural invention. The instrumental conversation throughout is also one that crowns the development and popularity of the form at the turn of the nineteenth century.
If listened to on physical CD or streaming platform in the album order, the expansion from the nine-line textural success in the nonet up to orchestral forces for the symphony is a rewarding expansion.
Intricate realisation of Farrenc’s elevated, elegant, easily flowing discussion between individual string or woodwind ensemble members is the order of the day from these players. The ensemble members were assembled from across the globe for the concert recordings. It is satisfying to have the performances from Sydney in 2020 and Melbourne in 2023 now preserved for us to revisit.
From the opening chords of the Farrenc nonet, and the exquisite weaving of melodic material across the ensemble tapestry, we know a beautiful listening experience, and a new loved work is in store for us We are struck by a pure blend and fine voicing from the composer and these early music experts alike. This writing and recorded ensemble efforts are exemplary in its evenness and exploration of the timbres possible from the nonet model.
Farrenc’s substantial four movement work continues with an extremely listenable smoothness, enjoyable expressive portamenti swoops in string lines and flexibility of tempo in the HIP style.
An impressive range of nuance gilds this important revival for Australian listeners. There is a clarity and smoothness in lilting, lyrical passages regardless of the width of texture, as there is when the nine players work in a measured way to build towards and return from moments of heightened drama.
The mesh of gut stringed instruments, period winds and brass is never lopsided here. This is due to the clever writing in this expanded ensemble genre by Farrenc, plus some joyous playing and group listening by this Australian Classical & Romantic Orchestra team.
Separate instrument types raising above the texture momentarily before passing the baton to another member of their section or a voice from another section celebrate the writing and the subtlety of performances on period instruments. The violin solo/cadenza-like section emerging from the ensemble at the conclusion of the first movement is a splendidly wrought and coloured line.
Above: Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra performing Eberl’s ‘Symphony in E flat major, Op.33’ at City Recital Hall, Sydney in 2020. Photo credit: Oscar Smith.
If the symphony by Eberl is to be described as successfully compact in construction and expression when compared in its day to Beethoven’s sprawling outpouring in his E flat ‘Eroica’ symphony, then the same can be said of Farrenc’s variations we hear in her nonet’s second movement.
The instrumentalists thrive here when delivering her brief, virtuosic elaborations. It was no doubt a version of the form that won the female composer praise for craftsmanship. It dazzles in the finished recording as it must have done in the ensemble’s live concerts.
It is always a thrill to obtain an instant favourite when this orchestra uncovers a work for us. Personally, this happened for me with the third movement Scherzo. It has been on loop /repeat since hearing its energetic character leap out at me from the first listening to the full album. This new disovery of music I can’t live without, with single lines or group utterances perfectly placed is a gem I can now carry with me from this recording.
By the time the Nonet in E flat major has rocketed home via another nicely voiced final Adagio – Allegro we are true Louise Feranc fans.
The nine instrumentalists on this recording from Australia and beyond were: Jenna Sherry (violin, Leiden), Stephen King (viola, Adelaide), Daniel Yeadon (cello, Sydney), Rob Nairn (double bass, Adelaide), Georgia Browne (flute, Paris), Tatjana Zimre (oboe, Amsterdam), Nicole van Bruggen (clarinet, Brisbane), Lisa Goldberg (bassoon, Ghent) and Anneke Scott (horn, London).
The recording shifts to larger forces with Eberl’s symphony, also in in the key of E flat major. This too is the key of Eberl’s own Piano Concerto Op 40, Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante K.364, the future Schubert Piano Trio D.929, Beethoven’s ‘Eroica’ Symphony and Beethoven’s later Piano Concerto Op.73 – the ‘Emperor’.
In this noble, popular tonality the Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra gives us plenty of evidence on this live recording as to why they are at the forefront of historically informed performance in this country.
The assemble orchestra presents this landmark with its neat, just-as-popular-taste-prescribed pacing with great shifts in colour, dramatic intensity, with excellent choices of tempi and with a freshness to match our discovery of Beethoven’s rival through this live, premiere recording.
Above: Violinist, conductor and Co-Artistic Director of Australian Classical & Romantic Orchestra, Rachael Beesley. Photo credit: Nick Gilbert.
Conducted from the instrument by violinist and Co-Artistic Director Rachael Beesley this performance is a measured, balanced salute to the musical inventiveness and functional appropriateness of Anton Eberl’s symphonic technique.
Featuring moments as expressive and contrasted as any Sturm und Drang predecessor or composer with a grasp on surprise and sudden outbursts.
HIP techniques with regard to tempo flexibility or melodic contouring freshen up the expression for us. The work’s architecture, resulting in Eberl’s critically acclaimed compact rendering of expression, narrative and symphonic structure are in good hands here.
This recording also provides an attractive introduction to the composer and his consistency within a format the public was comfortable with.
The solemnity of the opening Andante sostenuto is played with warmth, poignant emphasis and expert blend across the orchestra, and clarity of line sharing by solo instruments before the first movement takes off with clear energy.
Like in the smaller scale Farrenc work, fine articulation and contrasts, especially the build to more frenetic moments, contribute to the neat and effective advertisement for this compositional talent.
Once again the third movement is a caricature and bold swoop that is important to this work’s arch and is very appealing.
My take-home favourite movement from this recording, however, is the adroit pacing and rendering of Eberl’s beautiful second movement, the Andante con moto.
This perfectly manufactured meditation steadily unfolds and breaks out with effectively played shifts to smaller textures and solo lines as well as building to exciting tutti sections. Tempo choice for the movement as a whole and any expressive fluctuations within the eloquent music work excellently in this version.
This recording is one to cherish. It commemorates both the performances from Sydney and Melbourne in 2020 and 2023 respectively, where this orchestra continued its discovery tour of the chosen focus era, introducing us to more of the music by Farrenc and Eberl than they have already.
The enlightening, dynamic, elevated and authentic versions are to be treasured, with the recording available on the ARCO label in physical CD or digital style, all with attractive cover design of a period shawl and with interesting booklet notes from Yvonne Frindle.
Farrenc & Eberl is available at arco.org.au/farrenc-cd.
