Melbourne Symphony September 3rd, 2005

Each week TV current affairs hosts interview politicians, enacting sometimes titanic struggles for our viewing pleasure. Whether it's Tony Jones taking on John Howard, Barry Oakley fighting Amanda Vanstone or (my personal favourite) Kerry O'Brien grilling Tony Abbott, there are fierce disagreements, there is drama and conflict, voices are raised, stress levels grow. But at the end, interviewer and interviewee kiss and make up with an always jocular "Thanks Kerry!" "Thanks Tony!", happy to fight another round, and confident in the knowledge that each side needs the other to survive.

At last night's Melbourne Symphony Orchestra concert, Oleg Caetani and Stephen Kovacevich shook hands and whispered in each other's ear like great old friends and comrades, following a performance of Beethoven's 'Emperor' concerto that was full of disagreements. The two couldn't be more different temperamentally: Kovacevich, on his low stool, was impulsive and dramatic, expoloring celesta-like soft sonorities and hard, brittle fortes, and showing a certain unevenness of technique as he pushed ahead in many passages; Caetani was restrained and aristocratic, his economical motions encouraging long-drawn phrases, he refused to be drawn into the exciting drama unfolding from the keyboard, and was unhappy to push ahead. There were moments of very shaky ensemble, especially in the last movement. The orchestral tuttis were for the most part very well played, and a highlight was the opening of the slow movement, in which Caetani maintained a steady pulse while sustaining the phrases gorgeously.

Precisely because his pursuit of a steady pulse and his ability to build long phrases, Caetani seems perfectly suited to Bruckner. There wasn't a trace of sentimentality in his reading of the 7th Symphony, and although he set some quite slow tempos (especially in the scherzo), ocassionally fiddled unnecessarily with basic pulse and pushed forward in several of the big climaxes, the conductor avoided most of the tempting indulgences. Although the lyricism of the work was underlined in the performance, there were some gripping moments, and the (cymbals-free) climax of the slow movement was suitably overwhelming. The orchestra played extremely well for Caetani, but there was some dodgy intonation in the trumpets, horns (because of the horrible nature of the instruments, Wagner Tubas are forgiven) and upper strings.