Above: Violinist Victoria Jacono-Gilmovich was joined by eight othe TMO principals for this event at Leichhardt Town Hall.
The Metropolitan Orchestra, like most performing arts organisations worldwide, have been operating very differently, reduced to offering online reminders of their excellence only for the past eight months.
Their return to live concert life and also the occasion of their first global live stream was an impeccably elevated, exciting and virtuosically distanced event. It was brimming with well nuanced warmth as well as obvious joy on repeat amongst both the assembled players and fans alike.
Nine principal string players from TMO, some we have heard as concerto soloists pre-2020, reminded us of just what effective programming and precision can bring to a live audience.
Led with a strident command of style passion by violinist Victoria Jacono-Gilmovich, this lively ensemble of TMO principals, all seasoned orchestral and ensemble musicians, brought us balanced walls of sound with solid, secure inner intricacies.
The responsive acoustic of the Leichhardt Town Hall was a treat and the venue allowed for a fine rendering of the challenging, string works presented. It was an elegant and welcoming choice of site for the reunion of loyal audience and TMO, allowing for safe, slick hospitality and enough space for the technology with which to launch TMO on the live stream stage.
It was straight into the music and what they do best from these live-venue-hungry stars of TMO’s string section, maximising the impact of the concert restricted to one hour only. This began with a rocketing, riveting version of Welsh composer Sir Karl Jenkins’ work Palladio. The architecture, quasi-filmscore and morphed minimalism in this work’s design was devoured by TMO Chamber Strings.
It would have been a brilliant choice for any concert event, but showed TMO as strong survivors of the Arts industry here indeed. The stunning work and the care its delivery was given was also a perfect instrument for TMO players to firmly voice its talent on the live stream.
Above: Karl Jenkins, composer of ‘Palladio’ which began this live and live-streamed event.
Palladio was a new work for me to discover via this concert, and is now new can’t-do-without go-to piece on repeat. The performance at this concert was edge-of-the-seat stuff. It was a scintillating vehicle with which to remind us of the shine, crunch and essential electricity that live music, especially from a tight string string ensemble performance can provide in our lives.
From the opening movement’s rapid-fire fragments and symmetries, through Jacono-Gilmovich’s heart-wrenchingly beautiful twists and turns of the central movement’s lyricism over a restrained surging accompaniment, to the scintillating build to climax of the finale’s clever development, it was difficult to find a standout moment in the carefully graded presentation of this effective string
writing.
And if that arresting opening wasn’t enough of a welcome back, the excellently gelled ensemble balanced this with no less than Mendelssohn’s masterpiece of the chamber strings genre, in his Octet in E flat major, Op 20.
Mendelssohn’s prodigious talents of orchestration always make for powerful and multi-layered orchestral sound in this work. TMO Chamber Strings’ performance was so well balanced, dynamic and thoughtful that the intricacies of the 17-year-old composer’s brilliantly sculptured textures were solidly revealed to us and the musical conversation clear and candid.
The seasoned rapport between this orchestra’s principal string players added to the success of this interpretation. The joy to be playing live again was evident on their faces and gave extra gloss during the many moments of elevated interaction that Mendelssohn’s prodigious ensemble writing provides.
As in the preceding work the stillness and clarity of the slow-movement was handled in a measured, exquisite voice and the shifting accompaniment was full of warmth and colour.
And warmth was a key sensation of TMO’s live streaming debut and reunion with its fanbase. Careful yet genuinely welcoming hospitality and covid-safe spacing in the venue included drinks and refreshments along with the facemasks.
TMOs commitment to Sydney’s recovering high-calibre live music culture did much here to reboot its essential concert life and ventilate our souls. Their promise of more to come as TMO gets back to business is a quadruple stop’s worth of thrill for now and the future.