The National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, Perth review: 'questionable precision'
The performances in this all-Beethoven programme were let down by a lack of attention to detail, writes Ken Walton
What thoughts must be occupying the minds of the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, whose players and chief conductor Volodymyr Sirenko were in Perth on Saturday as part of their current UK and Ireland Tour? They certainly chose a programme, exclusively Beethoven, steeped in human strife, belligerent resilience and intellectual rigour.
The Coriolan Overture promised us a facet of the Shakespearean hero that focuses on his warlike resolve, conflicted by the tenderness of his mother’s pleading. Should he fight? In contrast, the ‘Emperor’ Piano Concerto, written while Vienna was under siege by Napoleon’s army, voiced militaristic defiance. And if ever a Beethoven symphony expressed exuberant positivity over the odds, it was his Seventh.
All of which seemed the perfect recipe for an emotionally-charged, personally-motivated delivery. But what transpired were performances often neutered by stolid detachment, questionable precision and weirdly uncalibrated voicing, veiled even by a certain sadness epitomised in the players’ generally poker-faced acknowledgement of the audience’s applause.
The high point was unquestionably the ‘Emperor’ Concerto, inspired by the commanding, fiery intensity of Ukrainian soloist Mariia Pukhlianko. Hunched over the keyboard, her demeanour was as determined and fiercely articulate as the narrative it expounded.
The dramatic turbulence of the opening movement was intensified by her precise, incendiary finger-work, giving way to the sublime shapeliness of the Adagio and its awakening segue into the flamboyant Finale. If anything let things down, it was Sirenko’s – and in turn his orchestra’s – impassive response and inattention to instrumental balance.
The Coriolan Overture held early promise, its resonant affirmative opening later impacted by careless synchronicity. The Symphony, too, had its sunny moments, but let itself down with massively overbearing brass at the end. A poignant, elegiac encore seemed to embrace an underlying truth.
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