THE WORLD’S GREATEST ORCHESTRA IN AUSTRALIA

The excitement level could not be higher for serious music lovers around the country at the imminent arrival of Amsterdam’s prestigious Royal Concertgebrouw Orchestra. Peter Pinne reports.

Acclaimed in 2008 as “The World’s Greatest Orchestra” by Gramophone Magazine, this renowned company of classical musicians are making their first ever visit to Australia.

Under the baton of Chief Conductor Mariss Jansons the orchestra will play two concerts in Perth, Brisbane and Melbourne and three in Sydney.

The Concertgebrouw Orchestra are performing two programs; the first  Heroic includes Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No 3 with guest artist Yefim Bronfman on piano, and Richard Strauss’ Ein Heldenleben (A Hero’s Life), Op. 40, and the secondLegendary features Johan Wagenaar’s Overture to The Taming of the Shrew, Stravinsky’s The Firebird Suite (1919), and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 in E Minor, Op. 64.

Mariss Jansons has deliberately chosen works by composers who have had a close affinity with the orchestra during its 125 year history. Richard Strauss, Claude Debussey and Igor Stravinsky frequently conducted their own works with the Concertgebouw Orchestra which also enjoyed a close relationship with Gustav Mahler, championing his symphonies.

In 1897 Richard Strauss dedicated his Ein Heldenleben to the Concertgebrouw Orchestra and its then Chief Conductor, Willem Mengelberg.   

Mariss Jansons ranks amongst the most outstanding symphony conductors of our time. He is one of only six Chief Conductors the orchestra has had since it was established in 1888, and recently won the 2013 Ernst von Siemens Music Prize which is regarded as the ‘Nobel Prize of Music,’   

Pianist Yefim Bronfman who is the accompanying soloist on the tour, is a Grammy Award-winning performer admired not only for his solo recitals and concerto performances but also for his playing of the modern Russian repertoire.  

The Australian season comes at the end of an unprecedented worldwide tour of six continents to celebrate their 125^th Anniversary. They are the first orchestra to have achieved this in a single year. Madrid, New York, Paris, Rio de Janeriro, Buenos Aires, Cape Town, Edinburgh, St Petersburg, Beijing, and Tokyo are just some of the 30 cities they will have visited before arriving in Australia. It’s the first undertaking of an orchestra of this size to visit Australia.

I spoke with QPAC’s Jenny Hodgson who’s producing the Brisbane leg of the tour. She said, “with a touring party of 140, (120 musicians and 20 support staff), it was a logistical nightmare. Finding enough 5 star hotel accommodation, co-ordinating rehearsal venues, transport, marketing and functions, was a huge job.” But the job’s a little easier for Hodgson who has previously had the experience of working on the exclusive Brisbane seasons of the Paris Opera Ballet, the Hamburg Opera and Ballet, and the Bolshoi Ballet. Although she said, ”The Royal Concertgebrow Orchestra is by far the biggest orchestra she has had to deal with.” It’s also the largest orchestra to appear at the QPAC Concert Hall in the last 10 years.

The transportation of the instruments alone, some worth in excess of $100,000, has to be handled with precision. Once the instruments arrive they are stored in a climate-controlled warehouse until needed at the rehearsal and performance venues where the instruments are not touched by stagehands unless a member of the Royal Concertgebrouw Orchestra is present.

Two young Australian violinists are part of the company. Jane Piper (Second Violin) studied at the Australian Institute of Music before performing and touring with the Australian Chamber Orchestra. She played second violin for the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra for six years and joined the Royal Concertgebrouw Orchestra in 2011.

Monica Naselow, a contemporary of Jane Piper, played together with her in the Australian Youth Orchestra Camerata tour for the Musica Viva Bach Celebration Tour of Australia. She moved to the Nederlands to take up a position with the Royal Concertgebrouw Orchestra in 2002, but resigned her position in August 2012 in order to return to Australia with her family. She has rejoined the orchestra for this Australian season. She lives in Hobart with he husband and two sons and regularly plays with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra.

Images: Mariss Jansons; Jane Piper (photographer: Ronald Knapp) and Monica Naselow.

Tour Dates

Perth Concert Hall 21-22 Nov

QPAC Concert Hall 24-25 Nov

Arts Centre, Melbourne 26-27 Nov

Sydney Opera House 29-30 Nov / 1 Dec