Australian Chamber Orchestra Unleashed marks 50 years, with Cello Concerto premiere at Winthrop HallDavid CusworthThe West AustralianFri, 27 June 2025 9:16AMEmail David Cusworth
Satu Vanska paused briefly to check her Australian Chamber Orchestra colleagues’ composure then launched into lavish peals of Bach’s crowd-pleasing Concerto for Three Violins at Winthrop Hall on Wednesday.
Vanska and fellow soloists Helena Rathbone and Anna da Silva Chen threw the lead around like jazz aficionados, yet always maintained the homophonous ACO sound.
They stepped up after cancellation by advertised guest star violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja, the orchestra instead drawing on its own talents and a new program celebrating 50 years of music-making, ACO Unleashed.
Vanska seemed almost to dance when her colleagues took up the lead, chiming in when her turn came around, relaxed and tuneful.
Though relaxation hardly typifies this live-wire ensemble; smooth in presentation but busy as the proverbial while criss-crossing the country on tour with barely hours to spare.
There’s also steely resolve in their playing, tightly attuned down to the graceful cadence of Bach’s Allegro first movement.
The threesome wove their mellifluous magic for the second stanza, Adagio, in solo, duet and trio combinations; ever-close in timbre and expression, crystal clear in the dolorous conclusion.
Scurrying melodic lines led out the Allegro finale, returning to joyful major mode.
Chen had the early action, virtuosic alone and in cahoots with cellist Timo-Veikko Valve, while Rathbone took intensity to a new level in frantic bowing before Vanska returned to the fray, dazzling in solo, cadenza and tutti sections. All then coalesced for the grandiose climax.
Ravel’s Tzigane gave Vanska the limelight, a passionate cadenza opening raw in tone and expression; the soul of the restless gypsy laid bare in melodious and harmonious flourishes that ripped the air.
Scintillating polyphonics and pizzicato set the scene for mystical celesta and belltones in strings to support solo pyrotechnics and dramatic runs to high harmonics and back.
When the ensemble joined the dance with timpani support, Vanska again rose to the challenge, accelerating through a dizzy interlude; pausing only to go again at breakneck pace towards a dramatic dismount.
Closing the half, Beethoven’s Serioso Quartet, arranged by ACO artistic director Richard Tognetti, laid on full-toned Romantic themes filled out by the 15-strong group.
Written in Vienna under Napoleonic siege, its tormented strains spoke with grander perspective through so many voices, while serene passages held greater assurance; though strangely stark in the conclusion.
Cello led in the Allegretto second movement, hesitant and questing, almost Baroque in melancholy meditation; softening in violins then returning to shadows.
Drama rushed back in the Allegro assai vivace ma serioso third stanza, surging across the stage in jagged figures. Vanska led with aplomb through solo first-violin sequences, reverting to tutti histrionics without a break. Bass (Maxime Bibeau) and cellos lent heft to an already weighty movement, especially in the crash-bang conclusion.
A hint of febrile discontent in the Larghetto finale soon broke into high-octane foment, espressivo in intent and delivery. Vanska again led decisively into the mad-cap final frenzy, her charges tight to the last crisp chord.
After the interval, Rathbone directed Schubert’s Quartettsatz in C minor; urgent flurries giving way to pastoral melody, returning time and again to urgency in a seamless flow.
Characteristically, Schubert left this quartet unfinished, though maybe with orchestral scoring more possibilities might have emerged. The addition of double bass certainly lent ballast to offset sweetly sonorous higher strings; decisively so in the conclusion.
To close, Valve played Finnish composer Jaakko Kuusisto’s Cello Concerto, a deeply thoughtful Australian premiere evincing a profound reverie from the opening cadenza, with whimsy in pizzicato ornaments and drama in purposeful bowing.
Violins and percussion intervened, broadening to tutti accompaniment as swirling phrases across the ensemble had Valve beat time briefly before Rathbone settled the scene in high harmonics.
Strident cello resumed the lead in vivace mood, drawing a fiery response over booming timpani, with Valve driving towards a climactic close.
Tuned percussion led in the Andante second stanza as cello returned to meditation, ambling over undulating higher strings. Undulation became a rumble, triggering timpani then resiling to ambient accompaniment. Tuned percussion again filled out the soundscape, embracing cello rumination towards a fadeout cadence.
In the finale, anguished mutterings from the solo prompted col legno bow slaps and pizzicato punctuation from the ensemble; then a sharp jab from timpani to darken the palette.
Cello responded with measured defiance, bright yet pensive, resolute in mid-range but troubled in the bass register. Timpani initiated a tutti intervention as Valve again beat time then drove forward, drawing the ensemble in his wake over fateful percussion to a jarring final flourish.
Get the latest news from thewest.com.au in your inbox.
Sign up for our emails
Read more on The West Australian
