Perth Concert Hall
reviewed by Neville Cohn
I have been attending – and reviewing – WASO concerts for more than 35 years.
During that time, I have experienced some of the most satisfying listening I could have hoped for.
And in Mahler’s Fourth Symphony, Asher Fisch and the WASO played up to and even above that standard of excellence.
Indeed, Fisch did wonders in coaxing often gloriously satisfying moments – as well as half hours! – from his forces in this massive work.
And time flew by as measure after immaculate measure worked its aural and emotional magic.
In one of the most imaginative program compilations I’ve encountered in a long time, we heard, before the symphony, Mahler’s orchestration of the variations movement from Schubert’s Death and the Maiden String Quartet. This was frankly magical music making by players surrendering to the Muse in the most satisfying way. They were at the top of their game with phrasing so refined and meaningful as to take the breath away. Stand up, WASO players, and take a thoroughly deserved bow, not least for blended sonorities that bordered on perfection. Bravo!
There was magnificent musicmaking, too, in the first performance in Perth of Luciano Berio’s Folk Songs.
Here, I cannot too highly praise Stefanie Iranyi ‘s singing. Here was impeccable revelation of mood with the sort of phrase shaping critics dream about but only very rarely encounter in reality. And did this singer know how to enchant her listeners with notes clothed in ravishingly mellow tone! As well as a rare ability to evoke, precisely, the mood of the moment, Iranyi’s total absorption of the composer’s ideas was wholly convincing.. It was a triumph enhanced by the finesse of Asch’s direction. It came across as a compendium of sonic and expressive marvels. A storm of applause greeted its conclusion; it was a thoroughly deserved response.
If the concert had ended at that point, I’d have left more than satisfied – but more magic was in store: Mahler’s Fourth Symphony.
In the symphony, conductor and players responded to the score as if it had been written specially for them. Here were subtleties of phrasing, tempi that sounded entirely appropriate with, as well, a rare expressiveness that allowed the work’s manifold beauties to register at an impressively high level. And, in the closing movement, Iranyi’s singing added yet more lustre to the evening.
To usher in the evening, we listened to an account of Schubert’s famous lied – Death and the Maiden – accompanied at the piano by Fisch. This was less than entirely successful. The piano (because so much of stage space was taken up by players and their instruments) was positioned far too far to the right side of the stage. And because Iranyi’s voice was not as clearly audible as would have been the case had she sung from the front of the stage – the same could be said of the piano accompaniment – this was a too insubstantial offering to make its mark in a meaningful sense.
