Making light of these dark thoughts
DARK MOFO: ETERNAL Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra Johannes Fritzsch, conductor Tamara-Anna Cislowska, piano TSO Chorus Federation Concert Hall, Hobart June 22
ADARKENED hall anda large illuminated cross set the scene for a program of mainly contemplative music.
Pianist Tamara-Anna Cislowska, sitting behind the orchestra, established the mood with her playing of Arvo Part’s gentle, mesmerisingly repetitive Spiegel im Spiegel.
Conductor Johannes Fritzsch mounted the podium during the final bars and the piece morphed without a break into Henryk Gorecki’s Piano Concerto, an often lively and again repetitive piece, with the piano functioning mostly in an obbligato role within the orchestral texture.
Part’s Berliner Messe was perhaps the highlight of the concert. A short, serenely beautiful setting of the Latin Mass, it featured the excellent TSO Chorus placed most effectively in front of the orchestra and conductor.
The remaining works — Peteris Vasks’ Cantabile for string orchestra, and Gorecki’s Kleines Requiem fur eine Polka for piano, orchestra and tolling tubular bells brought the event to a meditative conclusion.
Clever theatrical flourishes to enhance the atmosphere included monkish costumes for the choristers, and the use of lighting to intermittently bring the cross above the orchestra to almost painfully bright intensity.
The performers were clearly gratified by the hugely enthusiastic audience response that ensued.