Review: Australian Brandenburg Orchestra Blends Beautiful Music With A Tryptych Of Scenes Of BITTERSWEET OBSESSIONS.

Friday 27th October 2017, 7pm, City Recital Hall Sydney

Three scenes of poignant passion play out in Australian Brandenburg Orchestra's (ABO) new staged concert BITTERSWEET OBSESSIONS. ABO's Artistic Director and Conductor Paul Dyer again teamed with Director Constantine Costi to create three distinct works that punctuate the program of beautiful music.

Capturing Plato's three elements of the psyche, Dyer and Costi use Claudio Monteverdi's Lamento Della Ninfa, Il Combattimento Di Tancredi E Clorinda and Johann Sebastian Bach's Coffee Cantata to express the conscious awareness of the mind, the hot blooded spirit, and the pleasure and comfort seeking satisfaction of the appetites. Dyer has surrounded Costi's dramatization of these works with a complementary selection that includes works by Giovanni Girolamo Kapsberger, Andrea Falconieri, and Giovanni Maria Trabaci.

Prior to the first scene, Kapsberger's Toccata Arpeggiata's swell of thunderous percussion eases to feature a gentle repeated Theorbo theme presented skilfully by Tommie Andersson . The strings present a barely there pianissimo performance accented by a rhythm that pulses below the surface whilst vocals float over the top before the sweep of wind returns. The focus then shifts to Charlotte Mungomery's (Set Designer) baroque pastoral scene that includes a recreation of Claude Lorrain's pastoral scene Ascanius Shooting The Stag of Sylvia which provides the backdrop for the stage set with stands of wheat. Tenor Karim Sulayman, Baritone Jakob Bloch Jespersen and Tenor Spencer Darby open Lamento Dell Ninfa whilst Soprano Natasha Wilson captures the central Ninfa with a measured intensity that captures the heartbroken woman's emotions.

Scene two is prefaced by Falconieri's Ciaccona and Monteverdi's Il Ritorno d'Ulisse In Patria which has a festive country reel feel and a lightness and joy before a rumble of thunder makes way for Clorinda (Wilson), Tancredi (Bloch Jespersen) and Testo (Sulayman) who also doubles as the narrator. The previous backdrop gives way to a more industrial set of towering scaffold, albeit with the stands of wheat remaining. Genevieve Graham has given the work a modernist feel with black and white costumes that show signs of destruction from the war Tancredi is engaged in whilst Wilson dramatically cuts Clorinda's hair by way of disguise, with their identity further concealed from each other with masks of cloth. Aikido performers Melanie Lindenthal and Andrew Sunter represent the battle between the two mistaken lovers. Sulayman delivers a textured expression of the narrator and Testo whilst Wilson gives the dying lover a clear pure unwavering tone.

Scene three is introduced by the animated warmth of baroque recorders which blend with the 6 strings to present the light capriciousness of the first movement of Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No 4 which features concertmaster Shaun Lee-Chen on the Baroque Violin. It is a delight to watch Lee-Chen embrace the music with full physicality as he moves through the nimble work that provides a fast workout on the fingerboard. The third dramatization utilises a more contemporary setting with the wheat making way for sacks of coffee beans as Mungomery creates a hipster café of sorts with a broad bench housing a coffee machine and the accoutrements of the ritual. Graham presents the central spoilt Lieschen (Wilson) in cocktail dress and fur to imply privileged, self absorbed, millennial, white trash whilst father Scheldrain (Bloch Jespersen) is presented as a working class father who has lived to ensure that his daughter's desires are paid for. With a livelier and more frivolous story, Costi allows the performers more scope to play, allowing the audience to see that Wilson is not just a beautiful voice but also a strong comic actor as she plays out the spoilt conniving caffeine addict.

For those that enjoy a cross over from traditional concert to staged opera, this is a well presented work that entertains and moves. There is a good balance of purely orchestral works and dramatic work with the Brandenburg Concerto No 4 providing an orchestral feature and the Coffee Cantata being a lighter expression of obsession in a world filled with many weighty issues and more dangerous addictions.

BITTERSWEET OBSESSIONS

Sydney: City Recital Hall

25 October - 1 November 2017

Melbourne: Melbourne Recital Centre

4 and 5th November 2017

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