Diana Carroll is an arts writer and reviewer - READ MORE HERE





CLASSICAL - Master Series 9
ASO with Michael Collins

DIANA CARROLL - Reviewer
INDAILY - 2.10.12

THE ASO was in splendid form on Friday night for a colourful program featuring British clarinettist Michael Collins and Finnish conductor Hannu Lintu.

The recital opened with Gnarly Buttons, a contemporary piece by composer John Adams. This three-part work is scored for an ensemble of only 11 players on a set of instruments not normally associated with the recital stage.

It is an unmistakably American work, with moments of jazz and blues appearing and then fading into the shadows. The dominant clarinet line offered the perfect opportunity for Collins to showcase his remarkable skills, moving effortlessly through the shifts in mood and pace. Aficionados suggested there had been changes to the score, by accident or design, but I don't claim such intimate knowledge.

After the requisite stage-shuffling, the ASO launched into a superb interpretation of The Tempest Suite No 2 by Jean Sibelius. This is a wonderful work of eight brief movements, each with its own operatic quality.

Collins returned to the stage to take the lead in Claude Debussy's Première Rapsodie for Clarinet and Orchestra. Debussy's phrasing and passagework might intimidate a less accomplished clarinettist but it would not have been a particularly challenging eight minutes for Collins. The ASO swelled and subsided with suitable deference, allowing the solo clarinet to show its full colour range.

Igor Stravinsky's neo-classical ballet score The Fairy's Kiss was the program highlight for this reviewer. The orchestration is so rich and yet so precise. Close your eyes and you can hear the pointe shoes filling the stage.

The real delight of the night was seeing Hannu Lintu work his magic with the orchestra. Lintu is a dramatic figure who could have had a successful career as a gothic actor if he had never discovered music. A sense of drama pervades his conducting but this is pure musical expression and not ornamentation.

ENDS