Mozart in Manly with Sydney Harbour Ensamble @ North Head Sanctuary ‘artillery shed’ .
Program:
BERLIOZ “Hungarian March” from the Damnation of Faust.
MOZART Violin Concerto No.5. Soloist Anna da Silva Chen
SCHUMANN Symphony No.1 in B-flat major, Op.38 “Spring”
Talented musician Ben Crowe founded the Sydney Harbour Ensemble with a subtle but ambitious vision to bring outstanding live classical music to some of the historic and culturally significant places around Sydney Harbour. It certainly spawned huge wings by creating today’s concert experience ensconced at the North Head Sanctuary, lovingly called the “artillery shed” for its connection to the defence of Sydney Harbour. It commands an unparalleled vista overlooking the heads and the blue waters of the ocean and harbour.
This venue offers a sublime fusion of for a grey winter’s afternoon of orchestral music set on the edge of the iconic tableaux overlooking this amazing outlook.
Violin superwoman, Anna da Silva Chen is the soloist for Mozart’s Concerto No.5, known for her vivacious virtuosity and passion as one of Australia’s leading concert violinist. She is a class act, braving the chilly temperature wearing her cocktail apparel while the audience were casually insulated with winter woolies. When she is not engaged in practice or performing, she wears many hats as a chamber musician, concertmaster and director, co-lead in the Alma Moodie Quartet and a core member of the Australian Chamber Orchestra. Anna scored many fans on tour in Spain, as a soloist with the SCM Wind Symphony Orchestra, as well as, debuting with the Gettingen Symphony Orchestra. She has accrued a slew of prizes and awards including a laureate of the Vienna and Gisborne International Music Competition, as well as, selected as one of 22 violinists to compete in the Carl Nielsen International competition. Anna embraces complex and neglected works across many historical periods.
The ‘shed’ was at full capacity with the orchestra and audience ready for today’s repertoire. To great fanfare strode the ebullient conductor, Ben Crowe wearing coat tails similar to Groucho Marx’ signature apparel, beaming with pride at his large orchestra. Ben cannot stop smiling, which has a hypnotic effect on the audience as he wield the baton with a seasoned manner that won plaudits all round, engaging with the Berlioz masterpiece.It has been frequently used in cinema to represent military might, revolutionary spirit and dramatic action. The Great Dictator by Charlie Chaplin (1940), Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988). Remember the frantic duelling pianos scene between Daffy Duck and Donald Duck and what a memorable Tom and Jerry’s “The Cat Concerto” (1947).
Marche Honoroise- The Hungarian March featured famously in the Damnation of Faust Op.24, scored for a large romantic symphony orchestra, is highly celebrated for its brilliant and thunderous brass. The march was popularised by Hungarian national hero whose army who sang since the 18th century, reworked by Berlioz to suit the troops departing for war. The Marche Hongroise is based on a folk tune leading to the growth of the Hungarian Independence Movement, taking liberties with the original Faustian legend, embedding him in a Hungarian plain. The work showcased trombones very glorious with hard technical passages.
After the trumpet flourish based on the opening bars of the theme, the March appears led by piano, flutes a and clarinets with pizzicato accompaniment on the strings. Then the muffled notes on the bass drum simulates distant cannon-fire, the orchestra erupts in a furious melee. I was so fired-up, listening to this resounding fire-breathing showpiece, that I felt the urgency to rush off and enlist at the nearest recruitment office.
The Mozart Violin Concerto No.5 is scored for oboes, horns and strings, opening with the solo violin featuring the craft of Anna da Silva Chen coming in short but sweet dolce adagio passage before joined by the mighty sound of the ensamble. The work has several strikingly original ideas not found in his earlier concertos. In the third movement, nicknamed the “Turkish Concerto” , amid a graceful minuet movement the music switches to an Allegro in minor mode changing the meter from ¾ to 2/4, as violin and ensamble take up the wild Turkishesque mode with triangles, cymbals and drums.
Only when he wrote the last of his violin concertos, Mozart proved himself master of the Concerto snd of the violin, realising in these pieces, the dramatic possibilities in dialogue between soloist and orchestra, plus the true elegance and power of the violin. Mozart’s compositional development in the Concerto genre can be traced through these five concertos experimenting with innovative changes in tone snd texture, but above all, passion within a single movement. After the beautiful and rousing interlude by the violinist ends with the mist graceful minuet gestures. The clouds broke and the shed was flooded with piercing sunlight. Only Mozart’s epic music can achieve that.
The organisers invited the audience to a treat of sandwiches and cookies tables arrayed in the grassy circle fronting the magnificent harbour vista.
For the concluding piece we were treated to Schumann’s Symphony No.1 in B-flat major,Op.38 “Spring”. Before composing this symphony, Schumann was known for works for piano and voice. Clara Wieck encouraged him to compose for the orchestra, breathing the longing for spring into the work. He expanded the use of timpani in the symphony with four movements. Where Mendelsohn stood between the Classical and the Romantic worlds, Schumann had his feet anchored in the latter. His orchestral palette is rich, heavy with brass, its fanfare announcing “the beginning of spring” with a tenderness of the second movement “evening” leading into an angry scherzo of “merry playmates”, that farewells spring.
I loved the Sydney Harbour Ensamble’s explosive brass, propulsive tempo, prominent timpani and razor-sharp strings eliciting a thunderous applause that required an encore from a radiant Anna da Silva Chen. She chose a charming piece by composer Nicholas Bernier 1721 to bring to a close this riveting and rousing repertoire. Kudos to the ensemble for a superb afternoon of musicianship and delight.
