Orchestra offers up a myriad of melody in fantasy overture

Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture contains the most famous love melody in classical music and the finale of his Pathetique symphony is one of most heartbreaking in the repertoire. In debate, the majority would agree but there’s more to these two works than simple passion.

Wonderful orchestration, a myriad of melody and a variety of mood that you can’t help but sit back and savour.

Thursday’s performance of these works in Perth’s Concert Hall came courtesy of the St Petersburg Symphony Orchestra and while they might not have been the definitive performances, they did generate excitement. The will-it-or-won’t-it tussle between love and tragedy in the overture was a case in point, led by a string section that sounded at least double the size.

While the overture was marvellous to behold, the emotional toing and froing of the symphony was no less appealing. One small and personal complaint, however. The tremendous uplifting finale of the third movement must plunge directly into the pathos of the final movement.

Conductor Alan Buribayev’s decision to pause in between lost the mood but, that apart, it was a display of marvellous symphonic brilliance, heroic one minute, graceful the next before despair and lament held sway.

In between these works was Rachmaninov’s fourth piano concerto. Significant tinkering by the composer meant it lost its flow, making it a tad fragmented and a work that never gets going.

Rising above this pot pourri was the excellence of Peter Donohoe, as fluent on the keyboard as any young aspiring pianist. His performance was first class, lifting this concerto to a height it rarely reaches.

One last point. His choice of encore – some marvellous Rachmaninov – was apt and fitting. So was Buribayev’s choice of Brahms but a JS Bach air? The wrong piece at the wrong time.