Absolutely Beethoven
Sydney Symphony Orchestra, conducted by David Robertson
Opera House Concert Hall, February 14
Sydney Symphony Orchestra, conducted by David Robertson
Opera House Concert Hall, February 14
I’ve always said I
never really started listening to music until I was fifteen. It’s not as
ridiculous a claim as it sounds. Simply, before then I listened to commercial
radio stations, whatever was on, and didn’t really develop any kind of taste or
personal predilection for any one song over another. Sure, the first CD I
bought was The Cat
Empire which is cool enough, permissible even, and growing up mum and
dad preferred classical music to anything else, but I never really knew what
music was, what it could do, what it was capable of. In 2005, I very quickly
learnt what music was, when my best friend introduced me to Holst’s The Planets. In a
matter of minutes – well, as soon as Mars’
famous swirling strings
and thundering ostinato hurtled from the speakers – I knew this was
something worth listening to, was worth sitting up and taking notice of. Some
years later, he leant me a boxed set of Beethoven’s symphonies, and it was like
that moment with Mars all over again.
I knew, of course, Beethoven’s Fifth,
and the ‘Ode of Joy’ from his Ninth,
but not much more than that. (It was later that year that I
discovered The Beatles, but that’s another story.)
*
Enter, then, the
Sydney Symphony Orchestra and their new chief conductor, David Robertson.
Renowned for his warmth and rapport with an orchestra, as well as his advocacy
for music as a vital part of a healthy upbringing and education as much as for
his conducting, Robertson’s Beethoven season could only be nothing short of
incredible. I count the Seventh symphony among my favourite pieces of music, and
I leapt at the chance to see this, his
inaugural concert with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in his new position as
Chief Conductor. I was not disappointed. I’ve seen the Seventh symphony
performed once or twice before, but never before have I heard – or is that
seen? I’ve never been able to work out if you go to hear or see and orchestra;
do they play or perform? – never before have I heard it played like this. There
was a crispness to it, a freshness and a vibrancy, a fierce and robust richness
to it that confirmed why it is such an incredible piece of music.
